Input Stories

In honor of the first anniversary of H.R. 1, the landmark tax legislation passed last July that made permanent many crucial pro-growth measures, the NAM spoke with Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), who helped secure the Section 199A pass-through deduction on which so many small manufacturers depend, about his contribution to competitive tax policy.

Why it matters: “Our small businesses and manufacturers are the backbone of our country’s economy, driving growth and investment across states like Montana. Since I entered Congress, I prioritized the need to protect this industry and warned of what a less competitive America looks like,” said Sen. Daines.

• “Clarity and certainty are two of the most important things these job creators need to be as successful as possible, and making 199A permanent delivered both.”

Making it permanent: “As important as it was to make sure this provision was included in 2017, it was imperative we avoided the steep tax increase small businesses and manufacturers faced if we let this expire,” said Sen. Daines.

• “Since the day the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was signed into law, we pushed to make this provision permanent. Businesses from every state came in and helped us tell the story of what this means for them.”
• “When the time came to draft the Working Families Tax Cuts, the Main Street Tax Certainty Act was one of the most co-sponsored bills in the Senate. We had nearly all Republican senators on that bill advocating for its inclusion in final passage, and we achieved exactly that.”

The benefits: “Pass-through businesses employ more than half of private-sector workers, [and] more than 96% of businesses in our country are organized as pass-throughs,” explained Sen. Daines.

• “The deduction itself is directly responsible for 2.6 million jobs and $325 billion of the United States’ GDP.”
• “A successful manufacturing industry supports the American economy and helps protect us against foreign adversaries,” he concluded.

What the NAM can do: When asked how NAM members can help ensure small manufacturers continue to benefit from this provision and other pro-manufacturing policies, Sen. Daines said, “We can see economic data and how policies will broadly operate, but hearing firsthand from businesses [that] have utilized those policies to reinvest and grow makes all the difference.”

• “We wouldn’t have been able to get nearly our entire conference onto the Main Street Tax Certainty Act if we didn’t have stories from each state to point to.”

Read the whole Q&A here.