ICSC members turned out in force for the 2016 Strategic Leadership Summit, in Washington, D.C., last week. About 120 members from 34 states held meetings at roughly 250 Congressional offices to discuss key legislation affecting the retail real estate industry.
“This event is critical to ICSC’s advocacy efforts, because it puts our members face-to-face with Congress,” said Betsy Laird, ICSC’s senior vice president of global public policy. “There is nothing more powerful than our members telling their stories of how legislation impacts their day-to-day operations.”
Key talking points for the 114th Congress included e-fairness, tax reform and improvements to the Americans with Disabilities Act. ICSC members were divided up by state of residence to meet with their elected representatives for discussing how the issues affect their businesses. “E-fairness continues to be the top priority for the organization,” Laird said. “As more and more states begin passing legislation, it is imperative that Congress act to solve this problem and level the playing field.”
A bipartisan e-fairness measure called the Marketplace Fairness Act passed the Senate in 2013 but has been stalled in the House. Senate leaders promised to consider e-fairness legislation this year, but so far there have been no signals from the House, with very few legislative days remaining. ICSC supports H.R. 2775, the Remote Transactions Parity Act; and S. 698, the Marketplace Fairness Act of 2015.
ICSC members lobbied Congress on the importance of passing narrowly targeted reforms to the Americans with Disabilities Act to help curb abuse by lawyers seeking out frequently trivial breaches by property owners in order to be able to sue.
Last month the House Judiciary Committee passed H.R. 3765, the ADA Education and Reform Act of 2015, introduced by Congressman Ted Poe [R-Texas]. “This legislation closes the loophole in the federal law that has incentivized excessive lawsuits, by essentially providing a notice-and-cure period and [by] requirement of specificity about the alleged ADA violation — without taking away the right to pursue bad actors who ignore compliance,” said Laird. It wasn’t clear at press time whether the House would take up the bill.
Potential tax reforms — as related to like-kind exchanges, business-interest deductions, depreciation and public-private partnership incentives — were also discussed with legislators.
“The timing for this year’s meeting was perfect because Congressmen Pat Tiberi [R-Ohio], Danny Davis [D-Ill.] and Peter Roskam [R-Ill.] just introduced H.R. 5539, the Preserving Investment in Needy Neighborhoods Act, a bill explicitly extending a tax exemption for partnerships that receive capital contributions such as a TIF or other assistance from a municipality or other entity,” Laird said.
“Having our members on the Hill to promote the legislation and talk about the need to make this change to the IRS code,” she said, “will make a difference in building support.”
