Masonry Magazine June 2011 Page. 32
A SUCCESSFUL
2011
LEGISLATIVE
CONFERENCE
BY JEFF BUCZKIEWICZ
The MCAA held its annual Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C., May 10-12. About 45 people attended this year's conference, which is one of the larger turn-outs at the conference in years. A new addition to this year's conference: We had about a half-dozen South of 40 members participating. By Thursday afternoon, our 45 participants had visited more than 100 Congressional and Senate offices to discuss issues of our industry. Of these 100 offices, we saw about 50 Congressman or Senators, plus their staff members.
Some of the issues our group expressed concern over included:
* Military Construction (MILCON) - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), faced with limited funding for military construction (MilCon) and charged with staying abreast of a rapidly transforming military, is favoring low initial cost construction. Durability and maintainability are being sacrificed, and the long-term implications of operating, repairing and prematurely replacing these facilities are very costly indeed. Modular and "stick" constructed buildings with 15- to 20-year service lives are being constructed where masonry facilities with 50-plus-year design should be an option. The downstream (life cycle) cost implications to the government are enormous.
* The Hidden Tax on Small Business-3% Government Withholding Tax - The Masonry Industry opposes a provision included in the 2005 tax reconciliation bill (Section 511 of the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005) which would require federal-state-local governments to withhold 3% of