HR lobbyist lays out election-year forecast - Business Weekly ...

By Ford Turner
Reading Eagle

A lame duck Congress. The Supreme Court ruling on the health care law. Tax regulation expirations.

For human resource directors, a simmering stew of national issues could begin to boil within the next year.

Some of those issues were detailed by Michael P. Aitken, vice president for government affairs of the Society for Human Resource Management, during a presentation last week to SHRM?s Berks County Chapter 179.

SHRM has more than 250,000 members worldwide. Chapter 179 has about 170 members, all involved in human resources in Berks.

Aitken said the fact that it is a general election year means at least some people who steer national policies ? members of Congress and the president ? will have lame duck status following the election. The potential actions of nothing-to-lose politicians who will be out of office soon have triggered lots of conversation.

?We are very nervous about this time and what could happen,? Aitken said. ?There are some significant issues at stake.?

One is the year-end expiration of Section 127 of the Internal Revenue Code, which allows employees to exclude from taxation educational assistance given to them by employers.

If Congress fails to renew Section 127, those benefits ? up to $5,250 a year ? would become taxable.

?For those of you who are offering those plans, we are working hard to try and get it extended,? Aitken told Chapter 179?s membership.

The tough economy, he said, made it the wrong time to be cutting back on worker training and investment.

But the tax protection offered through Section 127 costs the U.S. Treasury about $3.8 billion a year, according to Aitken. And the pressure on elected leaders to reduce spending is huge.

How to reduce the nation?s $15.3 trillion in long-term debt has become a dominant political issue. Aitken said human resource departments will almost certainly be affected if a cost-cutting Congress acts to change retirement plan regulations, Social Security, or the health care infrastructure.

On health care, though, the main focus is the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court decision on the fate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The court heard oral arguments in March and is expected to announce a decision in late June.

?There are lot of practical things that will impact your plans heading into 2013, depending on what the Supreme Court does,? Aitken said.

Also on the radar screen for human resource industry observers, Aitken said, is immigration. The federal government has ramped up audits of immigration paperwork.

?They are not only coming after employers, they are coming after employers with a vengeance,? he said.

One recent federal audit of I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification forms at a single company turned up about 1,000 problematic forms among 9,000.

Aitken said the initial suggestion for a fine against the company was $4 million. Ultimately, the agreed-upon settlement was a fine of $1 million.

Aitken jokingly confessed to being a lobbyist, a profession not often singled out for public admiration.

However, he noted that the public approval rating of Congress has decreased to a historic low of 12 percent.

?We actually have a higher approval rating than Congress,? he said.

During his Berks appearance, Aitken conducted the swearing in of Chapter 179?s officers for 2012-13.

The officers are Chet Mosteller of Mosteller and Associates, president; Audra Donato of Misco Products, vice president; Marguerite Kline of Joe Jurgielewicz & Sons, treasurer; and Shannon Schulze of Benecon, secretary.

Contact Ford Turner: 610-371-5037 or fturner@readingeagle.com.

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