K Street urges budget committee to act on tax reform

A group of more than two dozen interest groups, many of them K Street powers, are urging the budget conferees to move the ball forward on tax reform. 

“The undersigned coalitions and trade associations share a common interest in pro-growth, comprehensive tax reform in the United States,” the 29 coalitions and trade associations said in a statement.

“We believe tax reform, done right, will create jobs, encourage more investment, and spur economic growth. A growing economy will also help the U.S. shrink its budget deficit. We urge the budget negotiators to seize this opportunity to pave the way for pro-growth, comprehensive tax reform in 2014.” 

The Business Roundtable, the Financial Services Roundtable, the National Retail Federation and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce were among the groups to sign on to the statement. 

A pair of corporate coalitions backing comprehensive tax reform, RATE and ACT, also joined the statement, as did the National Association of Manufacturers. 

NAM wrote its own letter this week to the budget conferees, who meet for the first time Wednesday, urging them to include instructions for tax reform in any deal. The budget conference has until Dec. 13 to report out a deal.

The RATE Coalition also separately released a memo Tuesday arguing that one of the few positives to come out of the recent fiscal impasse was that top officials on both sides of the aisle cited a need for tax reform. 

“We may have lost a couple weeks from the government stalemate, but tax reform is back on track,” wrote the coalition’s co-chairs, Elaine Kamarck and James Pinkerton.