Summary of NLBMDA’s National Policy Agenda for the 111th Congress
Housing and Homeownership: As suppliers to the housing industry, dealers play a critical role in promoting homeownership and advancing affordable housing. The housing market continues to flounder; helping it recover is critical to protecting jobs.
Green Building and Building Codes: Dealers hold a unique place among product manufacturers, builders, and homeowners. They are well situated to bring new technologies and environmentally preferred products into the supply chain. NLBMDA members are participating more and more in the residential green building movement as they respond to the demand for environmentally friendly building materials. NLBMDA supports responsible forest practices, and our members are committed to sourcing products from sustainably managed forests. We believe the market will determine which programs are preferable for certain applications, and we are concerned that stifling competition could have unintended consequences to limit further innovation. NLBMDA will monitor proposed building code changes to ensure they balance proven safety or environmental benefits and housing affordability.
Legal Reform: NLBMDA supports the Innocent Sellers Fairness Act and other legislation that would preserve victims’ access to courts by holding sellers responsible for their proportion of their wrongdoing. That would free sellers from liability when they did not act negligently in the design, manufacture, sale, or installation of a product.
Workforce Policy: NLBMDA opposes the Employee Free Choice Act and other efforts that attempt to take away workers’ rights to secret ballots in unionization elections. The skyrocketing cost of health care is making employer-sponsored coverage harder for businesses to provide to their employees and harder for working families to afford. NLBMDA believes access to affordable health care should be increased for all Americans, health care reform should be market-driven, and reforms should not result in additional or costly mandates on employers. NLBMDA will also weigh in on labor and safety policies and regulations to ensure they promote safety without imposing excessive cost or record keeping requirements on the industry.
Tax Policy: Our complex tax system puts small-business owners at a disadvantage. More must be done to ensure they are treated equitably and are given the information and tools to comply with tax codes. Many building material dealers are multigenerational, family-owned businesses whose existence is at risk if the estate tax is not repealed or reformed before the phased-out repeal of 2001 returns in full in 2011. NLBMDA supports modernization of the S-corporation to improve such businesses’ access to capital and competitiveness in these challenging economic times. NLBMDA supports permanent increases in Section 179 expensing limits, set to expire in 2010, and will closely monitor Social Security reform and other tax issues impacting the industry.
Product Supply: Lumber is the largest single product category that building material dealers supply, and NLBMDA has long had an interest in supporting a stable supply of domestic and foreign wood products. Restrictions on access to domestic timber has made us increasingly reliant on imports from Canada and other nations, with as much as one-third of the framing lumber in the United States coming from Canada each year. NLBMDA supports responsible forest management policies that promote the environmental sustainability of wood as a resource. The industry is engaged with forest certification issues and green building programs that promote wood as an environmentally preferable building product.
Energy Policy: Building material dealers rely on affordable fuel to get products from manufacturers and deliver products to customers. High fuel costs make for higher cost of goods, drive up the price of housing and adversely affect the availability of affordable housing. NLBMDA will support efforts to increase our domestic energy supply and access alternative fuels to provide relief from rising fuel costs.
Transportation Policy: The building supply industry relies on the ability to receive and deliver inventory in a timely manner. The deteriorating infrastructure and growing congestion on our nation’s roads are threats to the industry. Many dealers receive freight shipments by rail and have faced congestion and delays on the rails as well. Employee safety is of utmost importance, but NLBMDA believes motor carrier safety regulations must promote the cause without imposing unnecessarily high cost and compliance burdens on employers and small businesses.
The National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association represents more than 8,000 lumber and building material companies with more than 400,000 employees, 20 state and regional associations, and the industry’s leading manufacturers and service providers. NLBMDA is the voice of America’s building suppliers. www.dealer.org.
