In President Biden’s second State of the Union address, delivered Feb. 7, he spoke about several important priorities for his administration during the last two years of this current term in office.
Among notable items for the business community in his speech were references to additional taxes on individuals and corporate stock buybacks, stricter antitrust laws, passage of the PRO Act — which would make it easier for unions to organize — and eliminating junk fees levied by banks, cable companies and airlines as well as other industries.
In a letter to the President prior to the speech, NRF called attention to the main legislative and regulatory priorities of the retail industry as outlined in a blog post last month.
Learn more about NRF's key priorities in retail advocacy for 2023.
This is a divided Congress, so although neither party has the final word on enacting their agenda, we are hopeful that both Congress and the administration can come together to address some of these pressing issues in a bipartisan fashion. Despite the bitter divide over border security, for example, there are many things both parties can agree upon when it comes to reforming our broken immigration system.
NRF is particularly concerned about what recent employment data is showing related to consumer spending, and the extraordinary difficulties the Federal Reserve will have addressing inflation in an historically tight labor market. Revising legal visa caps, allowing Dreamers to achieve permanent status and other modest immigration policy reforms could help bring more workers into the market, but we also urge workforce training and investment to establish more pathways to employment for younger workers.
It is our intention to continue working collaboratively with policymakers on Capitol Hill and Pennsylvania Avenue to address immigration reform and the myriad of other pro-consumer and pro-growth policies that will help American families in communities large and small across the country.
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