Government Spending Accountability Act of 2013

As part of an ongoing trend to rein in spending and provide more fiscal transparency, this Act is designed to limit how much the government spends to host or send employees to conferences – including international conferences. Among its mandates, the Act limits the paid travel expenses to no more than 50 employees per conference, and restricts total travel expenses to 70 percent of the aggregate amount of such expenses for FY2010. The total amount that any agency may spend to support a single conference is $500,000.

The Act also requires government agencies that send employees to conferences to post employee presentations online at their public websites. They must also post quarterly reports on each conference for which the agency paid travel expenses during the preceding three months. The Act concedes that there may be exceptions for the mandates, allowing that agency heads may waive imposed limitations for a specific conference if he or she determines that a higher expenditure is justified as “the most cost-effective option to achieve a compelling purpose.” Military travel expenses are exempt from the spending limitations.

The bill was passed by the House in July but has not been voted on in the Senate.

Common Sense Compensation Act

2013 brought furloughs to thousands of government employees as part of the sequestration mandate. In light of this hardship to so many Americans, Congress is considering common sense to limit the bonuses the government hands out to employees. For example, 75 percent of senior executives received bonuses that averaged more than $13,000 per person in 2010. In 2011, the Federal Aviation Administration distributed bonuses of $40,000 or more to 86 of its employees.

The Common Sense Compensation Act is meant to put the brakes on these types of extravagances. The bill, which has yet to be passed by the House or the Senate, would prohibit any employee of a federal executive agency to receive a bonus that exceeds 5 percent of his or her basic pay. Also, throughout the sequestration period, only 33 percent of each agency’s senior executive service employees may receive a performance-based award (unless the agency is granted a waiver).

Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act of 2013

In response to the recent negative publicity related to the Internal Revenue Service’s administrative procedures, many legislators are adamant that the agency not be in charge of implementing or enforcing provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). This includes collecting and administering compliance for the $29 billion medical device tax and the $101 billion health insurance tax related to the individual insurance mandate and subsidies.

The Health Care law allocated new funding to the IRS to accomplish these duties. As of March of this year, the IRS had approximately 700 full-time staff already working on ACA implementation, and estimated that it would need an additional 2,000 IRS agents – constituting more than 80 percent of the funding provided by the Act.

This bill passed in the House on August 2 and is now in the Senate for consideration.

The Marketplace Fairness Act

Currently, federal law requires that retailers only have to collect tax if they have an established nexus in the consumers’ home state. Nexus refers to offices, manufacturing facilities, or employees physically located in a state. As it stands now, if an Amazon or eBay does not have physical operations in a state, that state cannot require the retailer to collect sales taxes from a local resident buying goods from the company.

However, the Marketplace Fairness Act, which has been passed by the Senate and is awaiting a vote in the House, would allow states to require that all retailers levy sales taxes on goods sold to consumers within their state. While supporters of the bill say it would generate much-needed revenues, many online retailers oppose the bill because it would require greater administrative burden and increase the cost of online purchases, making them much less competitive. Amazon has decided to support the legislation because it has the size and volume to offset the administrative expenses; furthermore, Amazon understands that such a burden would send many retailers offline (out of business).

The Act has been long in coming as it levels the playing field between online retailers and traditional brick-and-mortar stores. If passed, the law would not force any state to charge a sales tax; however, each state will be required to simplify sales tax laws, giving them the option to compel virtual retailers to collect and remit sales taxes on goods sold within the state. This means consumers would likely have to start paying taxes on Internet purchases, so many might just assume shop at local brick-and-mortar stores. The impact could be significant as, according to a 2011 survey of online shoppers by Forrester Research, 25 percent said they would’ve purchased from a different retailer had sales taxes been charged.

Immigration Act

Compared to the current law, the hotly debated immigration bill is projected to prevent between 33 percent and 50 percent undocumented residents from entering the United States. If the bill is passed, fewer immigrants entering the country could help conserve the cost of government entities such as public schools, infrastructure and social programs. However, the money that would need to be spent on border patrol agents, fencing and other high-tech security measures might offset any savings.

Opponents of the bill would rather see a path created for immigrants to become U.S. taxpayers to help pay for government services. Recent research has shown a strong trend of immigrants starting up new businesses when they enter the country, in addition to filling unskilled labor roles. These jobs have been vacated by the vast number of Americans who can now receive government assistance to help them attend college and seek higher-paying positions.

With so many pros and cons working on both sides of this debate, passage of any version of an immigration bill will likely have little impact on government spending.

Medicare Better Health Rewards Program

The proposed Medicare Better Health Rewards legislative act would offer incentive rewards to seniors who meet health and fitness goals. In an effort to lower Medicare bills, the program is designed to help Medicare beneficiaries get and stay healthy via planned, achievable goals (i.e., tobacco usage, body mass index, diabetes indicators, blood pressure, cholesterol, up-to-date vaccinations and screenings).

The program would be 100 percent voluntary and participating seniors who save Medicare money would have the opportunity to share in the savings – up to $200 by the program’s second year and $400 by its third year.