The next Congress likely to be more business-friendly

The next Congress likely to be more business-friendly

Starting in January, the new Congress will likely be more business-friendly, says NADA. NADA predicts Congress will hold hearings on the Obama administrationês regulatory actions, including one on which NADA has threatened to sue the government for regulatory overreach that would include boosting oversight of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Dodd-Frank financial services law.

In the lame duck session running through December 12, the first order of business will be funding the government. It will be funded either for the entire 2015 fiscal year, until early next year (the Washington Post reported that strategy would be used by Republicans as a bargaining chip), or not at all, if conservatives have their way and the government is shut down in an effort to extract concessions from the president.

The lame duck Congress can also be expected to consider tax extender legislation to reauthorize tax provisions for 2014 and 2015 that expired at the end of 2013, including Section 179 expensing and bonus depreciation, says NADA.

NADA is pressing its dealer members across the U.S. to urge their Congressional representatives especially Democrats to cosponsor H.R. 5403. The bill would rescind the CFPBês March, 2013 auto finance guidance and require the bureau to be more transparent and accountable when issuing future auto finance guidance. H.R. 5403 now has 130 bipartisan cosponsors.

NADA has a new e-advocacy tool that makes it easy for dealers to send a short message directly to their legislators. To access the tool and urge your representative to cosponsor H.R. 5403,

click here.

The new Congress will have a new auto dealer representative from the Washington area, Don Beyer of Beyer Automotive Group, which sells Volvo, Land Rover, Subaru and Kia. Beyer is a past chairman of AIADA, former lieutenant governor of Virginia and, mostly recently, ambassador to Switzerland. WANADA executives representing The Washington Auto Show met several times over the years with Ambassador Beyer in Switzerland while attending the Geneva Motor Show. Beyer will represent the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington as a Democrat and will undoubtedly be open to hearing the views of fellow dealers.