Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was the keynote speaker today at the opening day of NRF’s annual Washington Leadership Conference, and told retailers that intermodal transportation projects at the nation’s port should qualify for funding under the economic stimulus bill President Obama signed into law earlier this year.
LaHood says the Department of Transportation has $1.5 billion in discretionary money available under the legislation, and that some of it could be used to beef up rail and truck facilities that help move imported retail cargo out of the ports where it comes into the country. Read this afternoon’s coverage in the Journal of Commerce for details.
LaHood also said that billions of dollars in infrastructure spending included in the stimulus bill will put thousands of construction workers on the job at bridge and highway projects across the nation this summer. He said those projects could be a double win for retailers because they will improve transportation systems retailers rely on to move their merchandise and will also give the workers more cash in their pockets to spend in retail stores.
Also at today’s meeting, Michael Myers of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee assured retailers that lawmakers don’t want to do away with the existing employer-provided health insurance system as they work on health care reform this year. And Anne Phelps from public affairs firm Washington Council Ernst and Young said she’s convinced health care reform will actually be enacted by the end of the year.
NRF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Mallory Duncan urged retailers to support an amendment being offered in the Senate that would address credit card interchange rates by making it easier for retailers to offer cash discounts. The amendment is being proposed as part of credit card reform legislation under consideration this week.
NRF Vice President for Government and Political Affairs Rob Green said retailers should not accept any compromise on the Employee Fair Choice Act union organizing bill. The measure is intended to make it easier for unions to organize workers at retail stores and other businesses by effectively eliminating the secret ballot in union organizing elections. NRF is strongly opposed. Details are at NRF’s Private Ballot site and Coalition for a Democratic Workplace.
NRF staff also briefed retailers on tax provisions of President Obama’s budget proposal, legislation that would make it easier for states to require online merchants to collect sales tax, and bills that would make organized retail crime a federal crime for the first time.
More than 150 senior retail government relations executives and state retail association officials are in town for the two-day conference at the National Press Club. Conference participants are headed to the U.S. Capitol for a congressional reception tonight.
The Washington Leadership Conference resumes Wednesday morning when House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., and Senate Finance Committee member Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, outline issues pending in Congress that will affect the retail industry. Retailers will then head to Capitol Hill for a day of lobbying meetings.