National Federation of Independent Business

Last updated

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) is an association of small businesses in the United States. It is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, with offices in Washington, D.C., and all 50 state capitals. The stated goal of NFIB is to advance the interests of small businesses. [1] There has been debate about how representative of American small businesses NFIB is, noting its very conservative and pro-Republican record. [2]

Contents

Activities and politics

The Federation states it provides advocacy counsel on matters including legislation, taxes and guidance to small business owners on management, operating and marketing. It also provides information on legal issues and health care. It also hosts a podcast on a plethora of concerns facing small business. [3]

On its website, the National Federation of Independent Business states that it is a "nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded in 1943". [4] In 2010, 25 of its members, all Republican, were elected to the 112th Congress. [5]

Since 1990, it has donated $725,551 to Democratic candidates and party committees versus $11,972,074 to Republican candidates or party committees. [6] It was a key opponent of President Bill Clinton's attempt to reform American health care in 1993. [7]

In 2010, the NFIB became the lead plaintiff opposing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act health care reform legislation. The organization joined 26 states in the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the act. The case reached the Supreme Court, which issued its ruling on National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius on June 28, 2012, upholding most provisions of the act. Karl Rove's conservative Crossroads GPS PAC gave NFIB $3.7 million to help fund the court fight. [8]

The NFIB supported the America's Small Business Tax Relief Act of 2014 (H.R. 4457; 113th Congress), a bill that would amend section 179 of the Internal Revenue Code, which mostly affects small- to medium-sized businesses, to retroactively and permanently extend from January 1, 2014, increased limitations on the amount of investment that can be immediately deducted from taxable income. [9] The bill would return the tax code to its 2013 status and make the change permanent. [10] Dan Danner, the president and CEO at that time, argued that Congress could help small business by passing the bill as it would enable small businesses to "plan for the future, invest in the economy and hire new workers." [11]

In 2017, NFIB endorsed the confirmation of SCOTUS nominee Neil Gorsuch. [12] \

In 2021, it successfully sued OSHA to oppose a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for businesses before the Supreme Court, resulting in OSHA withdrawing the mandate. [13] [14]

In fiscal year 2022, NFIB had total revenue of $105,848,770. [15]

In October 2023, the federation reported a slight decline in small business optimism sentiment due to inflation and staffing concerns. [16]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Barrow (American politician)</span> American politician (born 1955)

John Jenkins Barrow is an American politician who was the U.S. representative for Georgia's 12th congressional district from 2005 to 2015. He is a member of the Democratic Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roberts Court</span> Period of the US Supreme Court since 2005

The Roberts Court is the time since 2005 during which the Supreme Court of the United States has been led by John Roberts as Chief Justice. Roberts succeeded William Rehnquist as Chief Justice after Rehnquist's death.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) is the world's largest retail trade association. Its members include department stores, catalog, Internet, and independent retailers, restaurants, grocery stores, multi-level marketing companies and vendors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan H. Adler</span> American legal scholar

Jonathan H. Adler is an American legal commentator and law professor at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law. He has been recognized as one of the most cited professors in the field of environmental law. His research is also credited with inspiring litigation that challenged the Obama Administration's implementation of the Affordable Care Act, resulting in the Supreme Court's decision in King v. Burwell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glenn Thompson (politician)</span> American politician (born 1959)

Glenn William "GT" Thompson Jr. is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for Pennsylvania's 15th congressional district since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was first elected to Congress in 2008 for the state's 5th congressional district; Thompson was redistricted to the 15th congressional district in the 2018 election by an order of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Since 2023, he has chaired the House Agriculture Committee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Affordable Care Act</span> U.S. federal statute also known as Obamacare

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and colloquially as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. Together with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 amendment, it represents the U.S. healthcare system's most significant regulatory overhaul and expansion of coverage since the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff Duncan (politician)</span> American politician (born 1966)

Jeffrey Darren Duncan is a United States representative for South Carolina's 3rd congressional district since 2011. His district comprises nine counties, two of these counties being manufacturing centers for the state. On January 17, 2024, Duncan announced that he would not run for re-election. Duncan previously served in the South Carolina House of Representatives from 2002 to 2010 when he retired to run for the U.S. House of Representatives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Todd Young</span> American lawyer and politician (born 1972)

Todd Christopher Young is an American attorney and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Indiana, a seat he has held since 2017. A member of the Republican Party, Young previously served as the U.S. representative for Indiana's 9th congressional district. He was elected to the United States Senate in the November 8, 2016, general election, succeeding retiring Republican Dan Coats. From 2019 to 2021, he served as the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Young was reelected in 2022.

National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, 567 U.S. 519 (2012), is a landmark United States Supreme Court decision in which the Court upheld Congress's power to enact most provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly called Obamacare, and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act (HCERA), including a requirement for most Americans to pay a penalty for forgoing health insurance by 2014. The Acts represented a major set of changes to the American health care system that had been the subject of highly contentious debate, largely divided on political party lines.

Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), there have been numerous actions in federal courts to challenge the constitutionality of the legislation. They include challenges by states against the ACA, reactions from legal experts with respect to its constitutionality, several federal court rulings on the ACA's constitutionality, the final ruling on the constitutionality of the legislation by the U.S. Supreme Court in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, and notable subsequent lawsuits challenging the ACA. The Supreme Court upheld ACA for a third time in a June 2021 decision.

Richard Charles DeBolt is an American politician of the Republican Party. He was a member of the Washington House of Representatives, representing the 20th district from 1997 to 2021. He was House Republican Leader from 2004 to 2005 and again from 2006 to 2013.

Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 573 U.S. 682 (2014), is a landmark decision in United States corporate law by the United States Supreme Court allowing privately held for-profit corporations to be exempt from a regulation that its owners religiously object to, if there is a less restrictive means of furthering the law's interest, according to the provisions of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. It is the first time that the Court has recognized a for-profit corporation's claim of religious belief, but it is limited to privately held corporations. The decision does not address whether such corporations are protected by the free exercise of religion clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">America's Small Business Tax Relief Act of 2014</span>

The America's Small Business Tax Relief Act of 2014 was a bill that would amend section 179 of the Internal Revenue Code, which mostly affects small- to medium-sized businesses, to retroactively and permanently extend from January 1, 2014, increased the cap on the amount of investment that can be immediately deducted from taxable income. The bill would return the tax code to its 2013 status and make the change permanent.

<i>Sissel v. United States Department of Health & Human Services</i> US Court of Appeals case

Sissel v. United States Department of Health & Human Services was a lawsuit filed by the Pacific Legal Foundation as a constitutional challenge to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). The plaintiffs claimed that the ACA's enactment violated the Origination Clause of the Constitution. The suit was dismissed by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and the dismissal was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The plaintiffs sought review by the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear an appeal.

The Health Equity and Access Reform Today Act of 1993 was a health care reform bill introduced into the United States Senate on November 22, 1993, by John Chafee, a Republican senator from Rhode Island, and Chair of the Republican Health Task Force. It was co-sponsored by eighteen other Republican senators, including then-Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole, and two Democratic Senators, Bob Kerrey of Nebraska and David Boren of Oklahoma. It was read twice in the Senate, but was neither debated nor voted upon.

California v. Texas, 593 U.S. 659 (2021), was a United States Supreme Court case that dealt with the constitutionality of the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA), colloquially known as Obamacare. It was the third such challenge to the ACA seen by the Supreme Court since its enactment. The case in California followed after the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and the change to the tax penalty amount for Americans without required insurance that reduced the "individual mandate" to zero, effective for months after December 31, 2018. The District Court of the Northern District of Texas concluded that this individual mandate was a critical provision of the ACA and that, with a penalty amount equal to zero, some or all of the ACA was potentially unconstitutional as an improper use of Congress's taxation powers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">COVID-19 vaccination mandates in the United States</span> Mandates for people to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S.

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, COVID-19 vaccine mandates have been enacted by numerous states and municipalities in the United States, and also by private entities. In September 2021, President Joe Biden announced that the federal government would take steps to mandate COVID-19 vaccination for certain entities under the authority of the federal government or federal agencies. Most federal mandates thus imposed were either overturned through litigation, or withdrawn by the administration, although a mandate on health care workers in institutions receiving Medicare and Medicaid funds was upheld. All federal mandates were lifted when the national emergency was declared to have ended in May 2023. A small number of states have gone in the opposite direction, through executive orders or legislation designed to limit vaccination mandates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biden administration COVID-19 action plan</span>

The Biden administration COVID-19 action plan, also called the Path out of the Pandemic, is a substantial increase in the use of vaccination mandates as part of the U.S. federal government response to the COVID-19 pandemic announced by President Joe Biden on September 9, 2021, to be carried out by officials in the Biden administration. The plan included various announced prospective efforts, as well as the issuance of several executive orders.

The broccoli mandate, also known as the broccoli test, broccoli argument, broccoli hypothetical or broccoli horrible, was an argument used by those opposed to healthcare reform in the United States proposed by Barack Obama, who was then the President of the United States.

National Federation of Independent Business v. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, 595 U.S. ___ (2022), is a Supreme Court of the United States case before the Court on an application for a stay of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's COVID-19 vaccination or test mandate. On January 13, 2022, the Supreme Court ordered a stay of the mandate.

References

  1. "National Federation of Independent Business - SourceWatch".
  2. Mandelbaum, Robb (26 August 2009). "Whom Does the N.F.I.B. Represent (Besides Its Members)?". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 February 2022.
  3. "Could the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Be a Good Resource for You?". www.visionmonday.com.
  4. "About NFIB". www.NFIB.com. 2012. Retrieved 2012-02-26.
  5. "25 NFIB Members Join the 112th Congress". www.NFIB.com. 2012. Retrieved 2012-02-26.
  6. "National Fedn of Independent Business Profile: Totals". OpenSecrets. Retrieved 6 February 2022.
  7. Mandelbaum, Robb (10 August 2009). "Health care reform's strange bedfellows". money.cnn.com. Retrieved 6 February 2022.
  8. Slack, Donovan (2012-04-13). "Crossroads GPS gave $3.7 million to plaintiff in health care suit". Politico.com. Retrieved 2013-10-11.
  9. "CBO - H.R. 4457". Congressional Budget Office. May 2014. Retrieved 12 June 2014.
  10. Pomerleau, Kyle (22 April 2014). "Tiberi Bill on permanent Extension of Small Business Expensing". Tax Foundation. Retrieved 12 June 2014.
  11. Danner, Dan (15 May 2014). "5 ways Washington can help small business". CNBC. Retrieved 12 June 2014.
  12. http://www.nfib.com/assets/NFIB-Key-Vote-Support-of-U.S.-Supreme-Court-Nomination-Judge-Gorsuch.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  13. SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES Nos. 21A244 and 21A247 NATIONAL FEDERATION OF INDEPENDENT BUSINESS, ET AL., APPLICANTS21A244 v. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION, ET AL.
  14. "OSHA Withdraws Vaccine Mandate Following Successful Supreme Court Challenge By NFIB". NFIB. 25 January 2022. Retrieved 6 February 2022.
  15. Roberts, Ken Schwencke, Mike Tigas, Sisi Wei, Alec Glassford, Andrea Suozzo, Brandon (9 May 2013). "National Federation Of Independent Business Inc - Nonprofit Explorer". ProPublica. Retrieved 6 February 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  16. Niasse, Amina (10 October 2023). "US small business sentiment declines moderately -NFIB". Reuters.com.