As the Washington Watch goes to press, Congress has passed 55-laws; and with only a few days left before the end of the year, the 113th Congress will certainly go down as the least productive in history. Even the infamous Do-Nothing Congress of 1948 did more. Hyper-partisanship is gumming up the bulk of laws. Most […]

WASHINGTON – U.S. Representative Candice Miller (MI-10), member of the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, today praised the House of Representatives’ strong, bipartisan vote of 417 to 3, passing H.R. 3080 – the Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2013 (WRRDA). Included in WRRDA, is Miller’s provision designating all ports and harbors […]

One of the biggest issues facing small business, and especially marine retailers, is the continuing movement in the federal government to over regulate. MRAA would prefer that many federal regulations simply be eliminated, but a key first step is to simplify the process. Three key House bills with companions in the Senate have been reported […]

Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) is asking Members of Congress to sign his letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “Dear Colleague,” to lower the renewable fuel standard. MRAA supports this letter and has asked retailers and trade associations to encourage their Member contacts to also sign the Goodlatte letter. The RFS mandates that 36 […]

The Federal government has shutdown, and Democratic and Republican leaders are not bending in their discussions on how to achieve fiscal responsibility. Concern is deepening in financial markets, and among businessmen, about the potential for a U.S. default of its debt.In just one day this week interest rates rose, making it twice as expensive for […]

In August the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency established the 2013 annual percentage standards for the RFS program for biofuel, biomass based diesel, biofuels and renewable fuels. These standards will apply to all gasoline and diesel produced or imported in 2013. The EPA also provided more lead time to obligated parties to demonstrate compliance with the […]

MRAA attended a meeting last week organized by the Ethanol Coalition. The overall feeling was that Congress itself has done little legislative work. However, the coalition felt Congress is still on schedule for hearings and perhaps reform/repeal legislation in October, which is the original goal. A press gathering was held in San Francisco in August […]

Members of the House and Senate tax-writing committees are putting together legislative drafts that may determine the fate of one of our most prized tax benefits, the second home mortgage interest deduction. In addition other key tax deductions, such as, property tax write offs and capital gains exclusions are on the table for elimination too. […]

A member of MRAA sent staff a note with great concern about significant increases to the price that distributors will be charging for gasoline beginning on September 16. According to the material supplied to the MRAA office, the primary driver of the conversion to sub-octane (typically 84-octane) gasoline is the Renewable Fuels Standard passed by […]

The US Chamber of Commerce’s recent small business survey found that Washington policies hamper job growth, with over a quarter of small businesses saying they have lost employees in the past year. According to the survey, the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is a top concern increasing by 10% since June 2011. Seventy-one per cent of […]