December 2016: Government Affairs

What Does 2017 Have in Store?

By Stephen Borg

• Tax Reform — The issue of broad, bipartisan tax simplification and tax reform has been at the top of many people’s agenda for numerous years. Chatter from leaders of both parties has increased ever since 2014, when former Ways and Means Committee chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) released a draft outline of a major tax overhaul. Both major-party presidential candidates have released reform plans, and this issue may be the most likely to see broad bipartisan agreement between the White House and Congress.
• Infrastructure Investment — Touching on the issue above, many people, including Hillary Clinton, have discussed using revenue from tax reform efforts to set up an investment fund that would be used to update our nation’s roads, bridges, airports and other major infrastructure projects. Major players in both parties agree that our nation’s infrastructure is in dire need of upgrading and that the federal government must take steps to ensure that the states are receiving funds to invest in these infrastructure projects.
• IT Security — Over the past two years, there have been numerous attempts in Congress to craft bipartisan legislation dealing with IT security. While these efforts ultimately fell apart due to the struggle to find a compromise between business interests and security interests, we fully expect IT security and the protection of connected systems and personal information will remain a very important issue in Washington, D.C., as a result of a series of many high-profile hacking incidents in both the private and public sectors in recent years.