PIA is praising the passage of a bipartisan amendment in the Senate to repeal a provision of the healthcare law that imposes an onerous burden on businesses, especially small businesses.

By a lopsided 81-17 vote, the Senate passed an amendment that would repeal a health care reform provision that requires businesses to file 1099 forms with the Internal Revenue Service beginning in 2012 any time they spend more than $600 a year with any other business. That requirement is a significant expansion of the current 1099 reporting requirement, which applies only to payments to unincorporated service providers. The repeal amendment was offered by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.); it was essentially the same proposal that has been championed since last year by Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.).

"The overwhelming margin of this bipartisan vote demonstrates that this 1099 provision was ill-conceived because it is bad for business and bad for the economy," said PIA National Executive Vice President & CEO Leonard C. Brevik. "All that remains is for the House of Representatives to follow suit and approve this amendment without delay." President Obama indicated in his State of the Union address that he supports repeal of the 1099 provision.

"This is a major victory for American businesses, especially small businesses," Brevik said. "This expansive requirement would have placed an overwhelming, onerous reporting and paperwork burden on small businesses, which are the economic engines that power our economy. In addition, state and local governments as well as nonprofits would have seen dramatically increasing costs."

PIA conducted a nationwide public education and grassroots political action campaign in support of the push to repeal the expanded 1099 reporting requirement. A broad coalition of groups also advocated repeal, including the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).