The Engineer in Congress: Rep. Ron Estes on Tax Policy and QBS

WEBVTT
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We are here in unique circumstances. We're partnering with the Engineering Influence
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Podcast with ACC National.
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We're recording in Washington, D.C. at their facilities using their equipment.
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That's why we have video and not just audio. We finally made it big time.
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And I am joined by ACC Kansas President Rob Crewson, who's co-hosting with me today.
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We're doing some pretty cool stuff, thanks to the help of our friends at ACC National.
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We've got at least two members of the Kansas delegation of Congress that are
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going to come by and join us to talk about pending legislation,
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past things that ACEC has worked on to the benefit of the membership.
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Just a chance to get to know them a little bit better. And we're pretty excited
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about it. So, Rob, I appreciate you being here to be part of this.
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And listeners, we hope you enjoy once to come. We can't wait to get it up to you.
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Congressman, thank you so much for having time to be here. Well,
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Greg, thank you for allowing me to be here and being able to chat about some
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of the things that are going on here. Absolutely.
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I think Rob is going to give you the hard question with what comes next with
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the infrastructure. But before we do, I want to offer a couple of thank yous
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that I want to make sure our listeners are aware of.
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Over the last probably three or four years, we've had two tax issues that have
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come up that have been hugely impactful to our members, and you have been a
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huge ally on both of those issues.
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And I want to just give you the floor a little bit to talk about what you did and to say thank you.
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The R&D deductibility issue, where it was being forced to amortize it for five
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years instead of taking them all at once, and the 199A qualifying business issue.
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Big issues for our members, and you were a lot more than just a yes vote.
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You were part of the core people that were using political capital.
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First and foremost, thank you. And second, if you don't mind,
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would you share with members what those efforts look like and what you're able to do?
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Well, thank you. That was great. It was so important to look at,
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you know, how do we keep our innovation up?
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I mean, America has always been a leader in that. And so one of the things that
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I've done for the last several years was be a lead and actually have.
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The American Innovation and R&D Competitiveness Act,
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which was the foundation for us changing research and development,
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being able to be amortized over one year and so spread out over five years and
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has a huge cash flow impact on businesses and actually is able to make
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so much work accomplishable because you have the cash flow to pay for it.
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And a lot of times you get to thinking that, well, that's only something that
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would affect big businesses.
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You know, as we've sorted around through the country, it affects anything from
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a startup, it affects small businesses, in some cases, maybe even more than
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bigger businesses, just because of the cash flow issues. And so we saw that
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was so important. We were able to make sure we got that back.
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And we actually saw real world results out of doing that because when it had
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expanded up to five years, we saw a huge drop in funding for research and development and activities.
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It was important to get that back and to be able to see that the positive benefits
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out of that. And same thing with the 199A. I think a lot of us were really supportive of that.
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You know, in 2017, when we passed the Tax Depends of Jobs Act,
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this was the first time that we set a tax reduction for pass-through businesses.
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And it was so important that we do that because in so many ways,
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we wanted to...one, we wanted to lower rates for corporations and help make
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them competitive, whether they are primarily dealing with business in the U.S.
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Or internationally. But we also said then it would not be fair and competitiveness
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for those pass-throughs.
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And that's why we wanted to make sure the 199As were implemented and actually
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to help pass-throughs of any kind, whether it's partnerships or family-owned
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businesses, and being successful in running their businesses and making sure
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that they were successful as well.
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One thing that the congressman rarely leads with, but I'll offer up since he
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didn't on the R&D tax legislation, not only voted yes, not only spent a lot
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of political capital to support it, but authored part of that legislation. That's right.
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We were the main sponsors of the American Innovation and R&D Companion of this
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Act and actually pushed it.
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It took years to push through that process to get to that and wanted to make
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sure that that happened. But before I let Rob ask you about infrastructure,
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I also have to, I don't think we've ever talked about this.
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I'm a voracious reader of The Economist.
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And it was probably a year or two ago, they had some article in there talking
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about, I think it was a 199A, I think.
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It was a little misguided, and two weeks later, I opened up The Economist,
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and I'm reading the letters to the editor.
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And lo and behold, here in this British publication that is not for your faint
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of heart readers, it's pretty complex stuff, There is a letter back to the editor from
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my Kansas delegation, Congressman Ron Estes, with a very well-thought-out rebuttal to some of those things.
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I was proud of the Pete Collin. Well, somebody from Kansas made time to do that.
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Thank you. I mean, it was important for us.
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Part of what we were looking at is how do we make sure that it's fair for U.S.
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Businesses to compete internationally? And a lot of countries were looking at
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ways that they could disadvantage U.S. businesses.
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And increase taxes on them. And we said, that's not right.
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And we weren't going to allow that to happen. That wasn't going to be a matter
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that we were going to be engaged in. And push back on that and actually been
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successful in getting a lot of that corrected.
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There's still some more work to go. I use the term, we still need to trust or
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verify that they're going to follow through on what they're committed to do. Probably a good call.
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Well, Congressman, thank you so again for being here today. I guess I would
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turn it to what's something about infrastructure? You know, not just funding,
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but we just talked about some other elements, whether it's taxation or regulations.
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What do you see maybe on the near horizon that our neighbors might be interested in hearing about?
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Yeah, well, it's so important you think about infrastructure encompasses so
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much of what makes our country economically successful, as well as coming up
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with innovative ideas just because of opportunities we have.
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And it's really more than roads and bridges. You can talk about, oh, that's important.
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And obviously, this year, we need to make sure we get the surface transportation
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re-operization bill passed and extended to moving forward.
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And being able to address that, we still got some funding shortages in the trust
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fund, just based on what we have currently been spending on.
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And we want to continue investing over time and making sure that we had the
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funds to do that. So, that's going to have some discussion and we'll work through
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that on a little bit moving forward.
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So, that's coming up as we move into September through that process.
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But there's a whole host of other things, whether you're dealing with water
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treatment plants or wastewater plants or even work along the canals and waterways of the United States.
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It's so important to actually help make sure that we have support for our economy,
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and having good infrastructure to help me to happen.
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Our services and we do it, is that where they need to be? That's right.
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That's right. Yeah. And it's amazing how much federal legislation we have that impacts us.
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It goes beyond the funding to permitting regulatory schemes and even the targets
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that we're trying to hit, you know, there was a time when the metrics had to
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be more, what can you impact.
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Why do communities or whatever? And then that turns to, you know,
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you're shooting for heavy health development.
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So I guess, which is a long way of saying, we're sure grateful for your depth
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of understanding of that.
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And you can always call your office if those issues. Yeah, it is so important.
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I mean, we, you know, with President Trump and the whole administration looking
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at, you know, how can we simplify regulations?
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And very successful in the first term in terms of being able to do that and
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minimize and reduce the number of,
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regulations that's out there and looking at ways of how do we go through whether
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it's permitting reform to actually get a project started or it's day-to-day
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operations and the regulations that may affect.
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Everybody from, you know, all the different agencies.
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And so we want to make sure we get that as right as possible.
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It's one of those things that folks like me who've been in the private sector
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before we came to office recognize that you have to live with those policies
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to get voted on or put into place. And we want to make sure they're as good
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as possible to help make sure the economy keeps moving forward.
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Well, Congressman, we could keep you here all day. We would like to and ask
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you a hundred questions, but we've already pulled all the good grace cards we
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can, I think, with most of your staff.
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And I know you've got votes yet cast today. So let me close with maybe just
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a couple of personal things, help our constituents get to know you better.
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When you go back home, do you have sort of an out-of-the-way,
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off-the-wall place that you like to go get away? Probably a restaurant,
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but maybe it's a theater or whatever. Do you have it in a gym?
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Yeah, you know, there's two or three things. One, some days it's nice just to
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be home, particularly when you've been up here for multiple days in a week or
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for several weeks in a row.
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And, of course, part of that also means you have chores to do.
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You know, there's so many great places around Wichita and, you know,
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if you want to go out for a great steak, there's great places like Chester's
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and Scotch and Sirloin to go partake of that. And that's so enjoyable.
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And just the opportunity to be able to partake in so many of the up-and-coming
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places within the city and the community throughout South Central Kansas.
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Wichita is pretty rich for steak houses. It really is. Yeah.
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It's a fortunate community. Okay, well, last question, because I know we've
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got to meet you on the road here.
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This is about as universal and human as can be. Do you have a favorite movie?
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You know, or a favorite two or three or four? Yeah. You know,
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there's so many great movies out there. You know, you think about things like,
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you know, I like mystery movies.
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But things like The Sting, you know, this is an old movie.
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Being able to, that mystery through that process of how that went.
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And then uplifting movie like Rudy. Yeah. The Underdog always pulls through.
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And football's a passion of mine. And so that's an interesting movie for that.
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That's an interesting. Rudy, I would not agree with that. That's wonderful.
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Everybody likes Rudy. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay.
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Well, listen, like I said, we could stretch this out for a long time and enjoy
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our time with Congressman, but we've got to get it back out on the road.
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So, Congressman, thank you so much for being here.
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Thank you for always having an open door when our members need to visit about
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issues. And we're grateful to have an engineer by training in Congress that
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drives us a lot. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks for being with us on the QBS Express.
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We'll catch you on the next episode.