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March 01, 2007 at 11:42 AM
Insurance groups are “making significant progress” at persuading members of Congress that the deferred compensation plan changes included in the Senate minimum wage bill are inappropriate, one leader says.
But, even if Congress keeps the Senate provisions concerning “non-qualified” deferred compensation programs out of the minimum wage bill, the issue “is likely to come up again as legislators seek to find ‘revenue raisers’ for tax policy priorities in subsequent tax bills in this Congress, according to David Stertzer, chief executive of the Association for Advanced Life Underwriting, Falls Church, Va.
The Senate passed a bill in early February that contains the defined compensation provisions, but companion legislation that passed the House in February did not include the provisions.
Congressional staffers and legislators already have begun preparing for a conference to reconcile the differing bills, and “the size of the tax package is currently the central issue in this debate,” Stertzer says.
Democrats are trying to return to the old “pay as you go,” or “PAYGO,” system, which requires members of Congress to offset any increases in program spending with increases in taxes or cuts in other programs.
