I’m writing weeks in advance of the November 2 national mid-term Elections. This Forest Operations Review is scheduled to be mailed a few days after that date.
At this writing, there are great expectations that the Congress we will inaugurate in January 2011 will have a distinctly different makeup from that of the current one. All sides, it seems, have taken up the President’s call for “change” and have fought to give space to the change they believe in, within the framework of this versatile democracy.
Where will this new congress find FRA—and what will it make of the wood supply chain’s role in moving the country into recovery?
It certainly won’t find us napping!
FRA has expanded its work with congress over the past three years, building alliances to ensure that the slow movement toward federal Highway Reauthorization—now more than a year delayed—goes forward in full consideration of the merits of truck weight increases. Our story of efficiency, safety, fuel savings, emissions reduction, reduced pavement wear, and an easing of traffic congestion is now familiar in both chambers of Congress, and resolution of the impasse over surface transportation priorities and funding will find shippers and truckers weighing in forcefully on the need for gross vehicle weight reform—with FRA members prominent among them.
Then there is independent contractor status.
Challenges to the right to contract freely—a vital right in our industry’s management of wood supply—have emerged from many quarters during the past two years, with bills in congress now proposing to make it much more difficult to avoid inferences of “employment” in contracts with service providers, both with respect to collection of employment taxes and in regulation and reporting of hours worked. FRA has been in front of both of these challenges, keeping members informed, building alliances with other affected industries, rebutting opponents’ claims of revenue impacts and “unfairness,” and placing our case before key members of congress and committee staff.
Neither of these issues—truck weights or independent contractor status determination—is likely to be resolved in the final days of this congress, although a “lame duck” agenda could still surprise everyone. Depending on the composition of the incoming 112th Congress, we will have an opportunity in early 2011 to call the question on truck weights and to turn sentiment away from interventions in independent contractor status determination.
FRA’s Board has already scheduled a Fly-In to Washington, DC on March 17, to give wood supply chain members—you—the opportunity to tell about the impacts their decisions make on their businesses and their communities. FRA members who participate will almost certainly work these two issues, and there may be others. Please mark the March 17 Fly-In date on your 2011 appointment calendar now!
Your Association is what you make it. Thanks for your support and your active involvement!
Dick Carmical
FRA Chairman