Public Policy Initiatives
PTDA relies on its memberships in the National Association of
Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW) and National Association of Manufacturers
(NAM) to fulfill all public policy and government relations
functions.
Through these organizations, PTDA is active in supporting efforts to
pass or amend legislation to address the following priority
issues. Visit the Government Relations section of the NAW Web
site or the Policy Issue Information section of the
NAM Web site. For direct links to their sites for a particular
issue, click a link below:
Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)
Cap & Trade Legislation
Research and development credit
Health care issues
LIFO Repeal
Selling Counterfeit Goods
EU Monitoring Reports
In addition, through our partnership with EPTDA, we provide members
with access to up-to-date news and reports on the developments in key
European Union policy areas for the PT/MC industry. If you're
doing business in the European Union, policy areas--such as
environment, energy, trade and consumer protection--can affect your
competitiveness and profitability.
Click here  to access the
exclusive PTDA member logon and learn more about pending EU
legislation.
Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)
The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) (H.R. 1409, S. 560) is pending legislation in the United States
which aims to "amend the National Labor Relations Act to establish an
easier system to enable employees to form, join, or assist labor
organizations, to provide for mandatory injunctions for unfair labor
practices during organizing efforts, and for other
purposes."
PTDA opposes the legislation as
detrimental to both manufacturers and distributors and urges its members
to actively pursue its defeat.
Status: The latest version
was introduced into both chambers of the U.S. Congress on March 10,
2009.
Distributors: For more information, visit the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW)
Web site and use their "Tell Congress" link at the top
right corner of the Web page to send a message directly to your
Member of Congress. Click here for an update from
NAW.
Manufacturers: For more information, visit the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) Web
site to access resources from NAM's Web-based EFCA Tool Kit. Click here for an update from
NAM.
Cap & Trade
Legislation
A cap and trade system is a
method for managing pollution, with the end goal of reducing the overall
pollution in a nation, region, or industry. Under a cap and
trade system, a government authority first sets a cap, deciding how much
pollution in total will be allowed. Next, companies are issued credits,
based on how large they are, what industries they work in, and so forth.
If a company comes in below its cap, it has extra credits which it may
trade with other companies.
Status: The House of
Representatives passed a sweeping cap & trade bill on June 26,
2009 by a very narrow margin, 219-212. Notable about this vote was
the large number of Democratic Representatives – 44 – who
voted against their Leadership's bill. Also notable is the
immediate fall-out from the vote, with reports that some moderate
Democrats and/or Representatives from fossil-fuel-dependent states are
already finding it necessary to defend their votes.
Click here for more information about cap & trade
legislation.
Research and Development Credit
Congress passed legislation that was signed into law October 3, 2008,
that extended retroactively the R&D tax credit from January 1, 2008,
through December 31, 2009, and strengthened the credit by increasing the
Alternative Simplified Credit rate to 14% effective in 2009. Prior
the credit’s renewal in 2008, the credit was expired for 9 months
through September 2008. Nearly 18,000 companies of all sizes use
the credit that was renewed for the 13th time since its original
enactment into law in 1981.
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Health Care Issues
Health care spending continues to grow beyond the rate of the rest of
the U.S. economy. Health coverage has increasingly become a burden for
the very manufacturers who helped to invent employer-provided coverage
during World War II.
MORE
LIFO Repeal
The U.S. Senate Finance
Committee recently has threatened to repeal the last-in, first-out
(LIFO) inventory and accounting method. The repeal would change a
70-year old GAAP approved accounting procedure that dominates the
distribution industry.
MORE
Selling Counterfeit Goods
The U.S. federal criminal laws that prohibit any person from
trafficking in counterfeit goods and services apply not only to the
counterfeiter—the law applies with equal force to any individual
or company that knowingly sells a counterfeit product. (18 U.S.C. 2320).
This law, known as the Trademark Counterfeiting Act of 1984, carries
substantial monetary fines (up to $5 million) and prison time (up to 20
years imprisonment or in some cases life) for individuals and companies
who violate the Act.In addition to the above liability exposure, a
wholesaler-distributor selling a counterfeit product (with or without
knowledge that it is counterfeit) faces legal action by injured parties
if the product is defective and causes death, personal injury, property
damage, interruption of business operations or other losses.
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