Mostly Good News For Cinema Owners
Legislative Update: 108th Congress, 2nd Session
by Jonathan Yarowsky
NATO Washington Counsel
As waves of summer heat descend on Washington, D.C., it
is important to remain clear-headed about key NATO priorities
for 2004.
Association Health Plans
(AHPs): As
you are aware, passage of AHP legislation will enable
NATO members to band together
to purchase affordable health care. There have been several
legislative developments surrounding AHPs since our April
20 Hill Day, during which representatives of NATO’s
independent theatres took to the Hill to voice support
for the Senate bill.
The week of May 10 marked the second annual “Cover
the Uninsured Week” (sponsored by the Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation) to highlight the need to provide insurance
for the approximately 43 million uninsured in the United
States. In conjunction with “Cover the Uninsured
Week,” both the House and Senate renewed their attention
on the issue.
On May 11, the Senate Republican Taskforce
on the Uninsured released its long-awaited policy document
regarding legislative
proposals covering the uninsured. As you may recall, this
taskforce was created by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist
(R-Tenn.) to develop recommendations for policy review
by the full Senate. We are pleased to report that AHPs
were included among the Taskforce’s recommended proposals.
Two days later, May 13, the House passed
AHP legislation for a second time in the 108th Congress,
together with
other provisions to ensure a certain level of insurance
coverage for the uninsured. While there was no substantive
or procedural reason for the House to pass this legislation
a second time without intervening Senate action, the
clear goal was to keep the legislative initiative in the
public
eye as well as to exert pressure on the Senate to act.
Movie Captioning Tax Credit
Legislation: As NATO president John Fithian highlighted in his June
2004 column, during
the consideration of S. 1637, the “Jumpstart Our
Business Strength Act” (JOBS), Sen. Mark Dayton (D-Minn.)
proposed an amendment to provide a tax credit for expenses
incurred to make motion pictures more accessible to the
deaf and hard-of-hearing. The version of S. 1637 passed
by the Senate in May included a 50-percent tax credit intended
to help defray the cost of open- or closed-captioning services.
At this writing, the outlook for the overall bill, generally
aimed at ending a costly trade dispute with Europe by providing
tax breaks to U.S. manufacturers in place of export subsidies
that have been ruled illegal under international trade
rules, is uncertain. Companion export tax legislation in
the House does not include the captioning credit. The issue
will be resolved in a conference committee between the
two bodies.
Minimum Wage: Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.)
continues his efforts to raise the minimum wage. Sen.
Kennedy’s
most recent proposal would increase the minimum wage to
$7/hour. While we do not expect the legislation will be
called up on a “stand-alone” basis, Sen. Kennedy
has indicated his determination to seek a vote on the proposal
as an amendment to an unrelated bill.
Overtime Rules Change: On April 20,
the Department of Labor announced the final regulations
governing overtime
eligibility for “white collar” workers under
the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). As described by the
Department of Labor, certain key provisions of the new
rules are described below:
1) White collar workers earning $455 a week ($23,660
a year) or less will be eligible for overtime pay
for working
more than 40 hours a week;
2) White collar workers earning $100,000 or more per
year, who also perform any administrative, professional,
or executive
duties, will be exempt from overtime pay;
3) White collar workers falling into the following categories
will generally be exempt from overtime pay: pharmacists,
funeral directors, embalmers, journalists, financial
services industry workers, insurance claims adjusters,
human resource
managers, management consultants, executive and administrative
assistants, purchasing agents, registered or certified
medical technologists, dental hygienists, physician assistants,
accountants, chefs, athletic trainers with degrees or
specialized training, computer system analysts, programmers
and software
engineers.
Notably, the exemption of motion picture theatres from
the federal overtime rules remains unchanged.
The rules continue to be a source of controversy
between the business community and organized
labor; and there
may be efforts to delay or modify their implementation
during
the pendency of the current session of Congress.
