[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14238-14239]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              PAPERWORK MANDATE ELIMINATION ACT AMENDMENT

  Mr. JOHANNS. Mr. President, I rise to talk about small businesses. I 
think we all know and recognize--certainly they do--that small 
businesses and businesses in general face a mountain of paperwork to 
comply with a whole host of regulations, most notably our very complex 
tax laws. Instead of trying to aid that, now Washington is increasing 
that paperwork mountain through a new 1099 mandate found in, of all 
places, the new health care bill. This mandate has absolutely nothing--
absolutely nothing--to do with improving health care of this country, 
and it should not be a part of that law or any other law, for that 
matter. Thus, I am offering an amendment to repeal this mandate.
  The amendment says no to piles of unnecessary paperwork which the IRS 
itself admits is going to be virtually useless. Any taxpayer with 
business income will be required to issue 1099 forms to all vendors 
from whom they buy more than $600 of goods or services in any year. So 
now the most routine business expenses will be subject to this new 
burdensome paper trail.
  Let me give my colleagues some examples. A laundromat that buys soap 
each week would now have to issue a 1099 to their supplier and the IRS 
at the end of the year. A landscaper who buys lawn fertilizer a couple 
of times a month will now be forced to issue 1099s to the companies 
they do business with, and no one is excluded. The law applies equally 
to businesses and churches and charities and even State and local 
governments.
  A recent cnnmoney.com article suggests that the cost of the new paper 
trail could literally swamp small companies. One small business 
organization conducted a survey and found that their members currently 
average about 10 1099 filings per year. The new rules would push that 
average to more than 200 filings--200 filings--per year, an almost 
2,000-percent increase. Of course, their costs for that would 
skyrocket.
  According to the National Federation of Independent Business:

       At $74 per hour, tax paperwork is the most expensive 
     paperwork burden placed on small businesses by the Federal 
     Government.

  Small businesses have been hit so hard by this recession, they just 
simply cannot afford this new burden. We need to give them a break. 
They are imploring us to do something to help them.
  According to the National Taxpayer Advocate, which is part of the 
IRS, this provision will affect--get this--40 million businesses in the 
United States,

[[Page 14239]]

including 26 million of our very smallest businesses, our sole 
proprietorships.
  Americans are desperately searching for jobs. They want to work. 
These businesses should be focused on growing, not be wasting their 
resources on unnecessary paperwork that the government won't even 
utilize.
  The amendment I introduced is clear. It simply repeals the section of 
the law requiring the extra paperwork. I might add, it is paid for. It 
identifies two areas within the health care law to fully offset the 
repeal of this mandate. First, by lowering the affordability exemption 
from the new individual mandate from 8 percent to 5 percent, fewer 
individuals will be subject to the individual mandate.
  The new health care individual mandate infringes on individual 
freedoms of Americans and, in my view, it has constitutional problems. 
People who did not want to buy government-approved insurance in the 
first place are compelled to buy it under the new law. Thus, exempting 
more people, especially the poorest among us, from this absolutely ill-
advised mandate is a good thing. These folks may be living paycheck to 
paycheck and requiring one more thing to come out of that paycheck 
instead of making the mortgage payment or buying the groceries is not 
right. Thus, allowing more people to decide for themselves whether they 
buy health insurance when they look at all their other obligations is a 
positive.
  Let's be clear. My amendment does not restrict these individuals from 
buying health insurance or signing up for government subsidies. My 
amendment simply says, if they don't want to, they don't have to.
  Second, the new health care law establishes a $15 billion, what I 
would regard as a slush fund for a long list of potential uses by the 
Obama administration, including the Community Transformation Grants 
Program. I generally support wellness programs. I believe in wellness. 
Who doesn't believe in wellness? However, concern has been raised that 
this fund will be used for a number of purchases that aren't 
specifically related to healthy outcomes. Thus, my amendment proposes 
that this fund not be allocated resources until 2018 to help offset 
removing this 1099 provision. It decreases the amount in this $15 
billion fund; it doesn't eliminate it, but it does give us time to get 
it right. Besides, this delay gives us more time to ensure that only 
worthy projects utilize taxpayer money. These outlined pay-fors will 
cover any government revenue that might be lost by this ill-advised 
1099 provision. With record deficits, we must be accountable for tax 
dollars, so this amendment is fully offset.
  Small businesses generate 64 percent of our job growth in this 
country. We need them. We need them to move us toward economic 
recovery. Let's send a message that we want them to focus their time 
and money on hiring workers, on expanding our economy, not filling out 
unnecessary paperwork that even the IRS acknowledges is so overwhelming 
it will not be utilized.
  My hope is, we will get a vote on this amendment later today, and I 
ask my colleagues to stand for small businesses, to stand by them, and 
to send the message to them that we want them creating jobs. I ask my 
colleagues to support this very commonsense amendment.
  I yield the floor and I note the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I am going to proceed in my leader 
time.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The leader has that right.

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