Latest news with #BipartisanPolicyCenter
Forbes
6 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Plain Language Bill Targets $183 Billion in Small Business Contracts
Rep. Nick LaLota, a Republican from Long Island, is making a second push to simplify federal contracts so more small businesses can understand and compete for them. One barrier that keeps small businesses from chasing federal contracts might soon come down. And it's not cost or competition. It's the writing. On Tuesday, the House passed the Plain Language in Contracting Act by voice vote. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Nick LaLota, a Republican from Long Island, now heads to the Senate. It calls on federal agencies to write all new small business contracts using 'plain language' and keywords rather than legalese. If the bill becomes law, it could help level the playing field for smaller firms that want to work with the government but get discouraged by contracts they can't decipher. Many businesses say they need to hire outside legal help just to understand the requirements. That costs money upfront and makes bidding less attractive, especially for firms trying to win their first contract. A 2021 report from the Bipartisan Policy Center found that the complexity of the federal procurement process is one of the top three reasons small businesses avoid bidding on government contracts. The maze of requirements and legal language acts as a barrier to entry, often favoring incumbent firms that already know how to navigate the system. Still, for those that manage to break through, the payoff can be significant. In fiscal 2024, 28.8% of federal contract dollars went to small firms, topping the government's 23% target. That amounted to $183 billion in fiscal year 2024 (which ended on Sept. 30), a new record. But fewer companies are seeing those dollars. Even as total spending has gone up, the number of small businesses winning contracts has gone down. The same Bipartisan Policy Center report showed that between 2010 and 2019, the number of small businesses winning those contracts shrank by 38%. That trend has continued. According to GovSpend, a firm that tracks government procurement, the number of small businesses winning federal contracts fell from 79,116 in fiscal 2023 to 78,677 in 2024. This is LaLota's second attempt to pass the bill. A previous version cleared the House in April 2024 but failed to gain traction in the Senate. If complex language is one of the reasons fewer firms are getting involved, this bill could help fix that. The contracts may still be long, but at least they won't be impossible to read.
Bloomberg
6 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Balance of Power: Early Edition 6/03/25
On the early edition of Balance of Power, Bloomberg Washington Correspondents Joe Mathieu and Kailey Leinz discuss the Senate making possible changes to the Trump Tax Bill. On today's show, Bloomberg's Tyler Kendall, Bipartisan Policy Center Senior Vice President Bill Hoagland, ROKK Solutions Partner Kristen Hawn, Bluestack Strategies Founder Maura Gillespie, Bloomberg Economics Chief Geoeconomics Analyst Jennifer Welch, Bloomberg's Riley Griffin. (Source: Bloomberg)
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's tariffs are challenge to fostering economic growth: Expert
President Trump is now threatening a 50% tariff against the European Union (EU) — alongside a 25% tariff against iPhone maker Apple (AAPL) — outlining how trade talks with European trade officials "are going nowhere" in a post on Truth Social. Bipartisan Policy Center Director of Economic Policy Shai Akabas comes on to talk about the "unsustainable" nature of the administration's tariff policies and the effects they have on small businesses and the American consumer. To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Morning Brief here. President Donald Trump refueling trade tensions threatening to impose a 50% tariff on goods from the EU, as well as 25% tariffs on Apple's iPhones. The levies on the EU would take effect on June 1st. Trump saying in a post on Truth Social that talks are going nowhere. Then joining us now, we've got Sheik Abus who is the Director of Economic Policy at Bipartisan Policy Center. Good to have you here with us. Just take us into your reading now on the latest on some of the trade policy and I guess strategic chaos has it's been talked about by some of the administration members. Yeah, well, thanks for having me. The what we've seen in the tariff um policy over the last several months has been really driving the uncertainty in the economy. And from a business standpoint, from a consumer standpoint, and it's very understandable that there are goals that these tariffs that we have with these tariffs that we are trying to renegotiate trade deals that have been placed for many years, get more fair trading relationships. Uh we understand the administration's goals to bring back some of the uh manufacturing to the United States. Those can be accomplished in a variety of ways, but when we are seeing these fluctuations in tariff policy, it makes it impossible for small businesses, especially to plan how they're going to conduct their business. It makes it very difficult for consumers who hear that inflation might be coming and making big purchasing decisions around that. So I think it will be important for some of this uncertainty to settle down over time if we're going to see the strong robust economic growth that we all want to. Is that uncertainty going to settle down anytime soon in your view? Well, it depends on what the administration's policy is. We've seen tariff rates go up and then they come back down, and then they tariffs get put back on, and then they take taken off. And that is really challenging for to fostering growth in the economy. Uh it'll really be up to the administration and the negotiations that they are undertaking right now with many countries across the world, and we'll have to see what those tariff rates end up at. We are right now at 10% across the board and higher on China, uh Canada and Mexico, and then there are these uh potential additions that you just mentioned at the top. If those all go up, then I think we're in for a difficult second half of the year for the economy. If we settle into a more uh natural state of equilibrium, even if that includes some tariffs, I think people will feel more confident about planning for the future. I I thought the tariffs were supposed to offer the tax cut. So this is another challenge, which is that we've heard competing visions and goals for what the purposes of these tariffs are. That the president has said that he wants to bring in a massive amount of revenue from the tariffs. We've seen a little bit of revenue come in. We have a tracker that that shows that tariffs are coming in at higher rates than they were in previous years, but nothing that's going to materially change our fiscal challenge. And that is at odds with the uh purpose of the tariffs to incentivize renegotiations of the trading relationships that will result in more free trade. Because of course, if we get free your trade and tariff rates come back down, they're not going to bring in that revenue that's being discussed. So we'll have to see where those two competing priorities uh leave us, but I think the bottom line for the fiscal situation, which is getting quite dire in this country, is it's unlikely that tariffs are going to play a major role in getting us out of the situation that we've gotten ourselves into. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Japan Today
09-05-2025
- Business
- Japan Today
The more Trump talks about making trade deals, the more confusing the tariff picture gets
By JOSH BOAK FILE - President Donald Trump, left, poses for a photo with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, June 29, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) The more President Donald Trump talks about his efforts to reach deals with America's trading partners, the more confusing the tariff picture gets. His team seems good with that, saying Trump is using 'strategic uncertainty' to his advantage. Trump says the United States does not have to sign any agreements, and that it could sign 25 of them right now. He says he is looking for fair deals on all sides, and that he does not care about other countries' markets. He says his team can sit down to negotiate the terms of a deal, and that he might just impose a set of tariffs on his own. 'I am struggling to make sense of it,' Chad Bown, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, wrote in an email. Although Trump's team holds up his best-selling book 'The Art of the Deal' as proof that he has a master plan, much of the world is on tenterhooks. That has meant a volatile stock market, hiring freezes and all kinds of uncertainty even as Trump continues to promise that new factories and jobs are on the horizon. A look at how the trade talks may play out: As part of any deal, Trump wants to keep some of his tariffs in place. He believes the import taxes can generate massive revenues for a heavily indebted federal government even though other countries see the whole point of striking a deal as getting rid of tariffs. 'They're a beautiful thing for us,' Trump said recently about tariffs. 'If you can use them, if you can get away with using them, it's going to make us very rich. And we'll be paying off debt, we'll be lowering your taxes very substantially because so much money will be taken in that we'll be able to lower your taxes even beyond the tax cut that you're going to be getting.' So far this year, the U.S. government has collected $45.9 billion from tariffs, about $14.5 billion more than last year, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. Those revenues could escalate sharply given the 10% baseline tariffs, the 145% rate being charged on Chinese goods and rates as high as 25% on steel, aluminum, auto and Mexican and Canadian imports. To reach Trump's stated goals of repaying the $36 trillion debt and reducing income taxes, his tariffs would need to raise at least $2 trillion annually without causing the economy to crash in ways that lead to lower overall tax revenues. That would be close to impossible mathematically. The Republican administration has said 17 of its major 18 trading partners have essentially presented them with term sheets, which list the possible compromises that they are prepared to make. Agreeing to a mutual understanding of the terms would be only the start of any trade talks. But foreign leaders have said it is unclear exactly what Trump wants or how deals could be codified into a durable agreement. They also know Trump approved the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement in 2020, only to charge new tariffs on those same two trading partners this year. While meeting with Trump last Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney suggested the next version of that agreement would need to be strengthened to prevent a repeat of the fentanyl-related tariffs imposed this year by Trump that Canada saw as arbitrary. 'Some things about it are going to have to change," Carney said. The 145% tariffs on China — and the 125% tariffs on the U.S. that Beijing imposed in response — hang over the entire negotiating process. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent acknowledges that those tariffs are not 'sustainable.' The first talks between the U.S. and China are set to begin this weekend in Switzerland, but they will likely be limited to finding ways to de-escalate tensions enough for meaningful negotiations to take place. The key issue is that China is the world's dominant manufacturer, which makes also makes it a leading exporter in ways that can supplant domestic industries. Because China suppresses domestic consumption and focuses on production, the rest of the world buys what it makes because there is not enough internal demand. The U.S. wants to rebalance trade, but it has done so also through tariffs on countries that could be its natural allies in defending their auto and tech industries against China. 'Obviously in this trade puzzle, China is the biggest piece,' Bessent said this week. 'Where do we end up with China?' Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian has suggested that a meaningful way for the Trump administration to jump-start talks would be to pull back on its rhetoric and punitive import taxes. 'If the U.S. truly wants to resolve the issue through dialogue and negotiation, it should stop threatening and pressuring and engage in dialogue with China on the basis of equality, respect and mutual benefit,' Lin said Tuesday. Not necessarily. Trump unilaterally imposed his universal tariffs without Congress, using the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to do so, which has led to multiple lawsuits. The administration also maintains that any agreements to change the rates would not need congressional approval. Previously, presidents, including Trump in his first term with his 'Phase One' China deal, could negotiate only 'more limited agreements that have focused on select bilateral trade and tariff issues,' according to a Congressional Research Service report updated this April. Other examples of limited deals include a 2023 agreement on critical minerals and a 2020 deal on digital trade with Japan. The challenge is that Trump has also made nontariff barriers such as safety regulations for autos and the value added taxes charged in Europe part of his talks. He wants other countries to change their nontariff policies in exchange for the U.S. reducing the new tariffs he introduced. Other countries, in return, might object to U.S. subsidies to its companies. In theory, it would take House and Senate approval to complete a deal that would address 'non-tariff barriers and require changes to U.S. law,' the Congressional Research Service report said. If other countries fail to satisfy him, Trump has suggested he will just do some kind of internal deals and set a tariff rate, although he technically already did that with his April 2 'Liberation Day' tariffs. The import taxes announced by Trump then led to a financial market sell-off that caused him to pause some of his new tariffs for 90 days and charge the lower 10% baseline rate while negotiations take place. It appears Trump will agree not to impose the originally threatened tariffs if he thinks other countries are making adequate concessions, essentially meaning that the U.S. gives up nothing because the tariffs are new. But Trump might also pull back his tariffs without necessarily getting much in return. 'Trump is notorious for making maximalist demands and then retreating as negotiations go on, so we'll see how long he sticks with his formula,' said William Reinsch, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. 'But so far it is pretty clear that countries coming in and wanting a 'normal' trade negotiation with both sides making substantive concessions are being rebuffed.' © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
08-05-2025
- Business
The more Trump talks about making trade deals, the more confusing the tariff picture gets
WASHINGTON -- The more President Donald Trump talks about his efforts to reach deals with America's trading partners, the more confusing the tariff picture gets. His team seems good with that, saying Trump is using 'strategic uncertainty' to his advantage. Trump says the United States does not have to sign any agreements, and that it could sign 25 of them right now. He says he is looking for fair deals on all sides, and that he does not care about other countries' markets. He says his team can sit down to negotiate the terms of a deal, and that he might just impose a set of tariffs on his own. 'I am struggling to make sense of it,' Chad Bown, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, wrote in an email. Late Wednesday on his social media site, Trump wrote that he'll be holding a news conference Thursday morning concerning a 'MAJOR TRADE DEAL WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF A BIG, AND HIGHLY RESPECTED, COUNTRY.' He added that it would be 'THE FIRST OF MANY!!!' Although Trump's team holds up his best-selling book 'The Art of the Deal' as proof that he has a master plan, much of the world is on tenterhooks. That has meant a volatile stock market, hiring freezes and all kinds of uncertainty even as Trump continues to promise that new factories and jobs are on the horizon. A look at how the trade talks may play out: As part of any deal, Trump wants to keep some of his tariffs in place. He believes the import taxes can generate massive revenues for a heavily indebted federal government even though other countries see the whole point of striking a deal as getting rid of tariffs. 'They're a beautiful thing for us,' Trump said recently about tariffs. 'If you can use them, if you can get away with using them, it's going to make us very rich. And we'll be paying off debt, we'll be lowering your taxes very substantially because so much money will be taken in that we'll be able to lower your taxes even beyond the tax cut that you're going to be getting.' So far this year, the U.S. government has collected $45.9 billion from tariffs, about $14.5 billion more than last year, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. Those revenues could escalate sharply given the 10% baseline tariffs, the 145% rate being charged on Chinese goods and rates as high as 25% on steel, aluminum, auto and Mexican and Canadian imports. To reach Trump's stated goals of repaying the $36 trillion debt and reducing income taxes, his tariffs would need to raise at least $2 trillion annually without causing the economy to crash in ways that lead to lower overall tax revenues. That would be close to impossible mathematically. The Republican administration has said 17 of its major 18 trading partners have essentially presented them with term sheets, which list the possible compromises that they are prepared to make. Agreeing to a mutual understanding of the terms would be only the start of any trade talks. But foreign leaders have said it is unclear exactly what Trump wants or how deals could be codified into a durable agreement. They also know Trump approved the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement in 2020, only to charge new tariffs on those same two trading partners this year. While meeting with Trump on Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney suggested the next version of that agreement would need to be strengthened to prevent a repeat of the fentanyl-related tariffs imposed this year by Trump that Canada saw as arbitrary. 'Some things about it are going to have to change," Carney said. The 145% tariffs on China — and the 125% tariffs on the U.S. that Beijing imposed in response — hang over the entire negotiating process. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent acknowledges that those tariffs are not 'sustainable.' The first talks between the U.S. and China are set to begin this weekend in Switzerland, but they will likely be limited to finding ways to de-escalate tensions enough for meaningful negotiations to take place. The key issue is that China is the world's dominant manufacturer, which makes also makes it a leading exporter in ways that can supplant domestic industries. Because China suppresses domestic consumption and focuses on production, the rest of the world buys what it makes because there is not enough internal demand. The U.S. wants to rebalance trade, but it has done so also through tariffs on countries that could be its natural allies in defending their auto and tech industries against China. 'Obviously in this trade puzzle, China is the biggest piece,' Bessent said this week. 'Where do we end up with China?' Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian has suggested that a meaningful way for the Trump administration to jump-start talks would be to pull back on its rhetoric and punitive import taxes. 'If the U.S. truly wants to resolve the issue through dialogue and negotiation, it should stop threatening and pressuring and engage in dialogue with China on the basis of equality, respect and mutual benefit,' Lin said Tuesday. Asked on Wednesday whether he would reduce the tariffs on China as a condition for negotiations, Trump said, 'No.' The president also disputed statements by the Chinese government that his administration sought the talks in Geneva. 'Well, I think they ought to go back and study their files," Trump said. Not necessarily. Trump unilaterally imposed his universal tariffs without Congress, using the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to do so, which has led to multiple lawsuits. The administration also maintains that any agreements to change the rates would not need congressional approval. Previously, presidents, including Trump in his first term with his 'Phase One' China deal, could negotiate only 'more limited agreements that have focused on select bilateral trade and tariff issues,' according to a Congressional Research Service report updated this April. Other examples of limited deals include a 2023 agreement on critical minerals and a 2020 deal on digital trade with Japan. The challenge is that Trump has also made nontariff barriers such as safety regulations for autos and the value added taxes charged in Europe part of his talks. He wants other countries to change their nontariff policies in exchange for the U.S. reducing the new tariffs he introduced. Other countries, in return, might object to U.S. subsidies to its companies. In theory, it would take House and Senate approval to complete a deal that would address 'non-tariff barriers and require changes to U.S. law,' the Congressional Research Service report said. If other countries fail to satisfy him, Trump has suggested he will just do some kind of internal deals and set a tariff rate, although he technically already did that with his April 2 'Liberation Day' tariffs. The import taxes announced by Trump then led to a financial market sell-off that caused him to pause some of his new tariffs for 90 days and charge the lower 10% baseline rate while negotiations take place. It appears Trump will agree not to impose the originally threatened tariffs if he thinks other countries are making adequate concessions, essentially meaning that the U.S. gives up nothing because the tariffs are new. But Trump might also pull back his tariffs without necessarily getting much in return. 'Trump is notorious for making maximalist demands and then retreating as negotiations go on, so we'll see how long he sticks with his formula,' said William Reinsch, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. 'But so far it is pretty clear that countries coming in and wanting a 'normal' trade negotiation with both sides making substantive concessions are being rebuffed.'
