Latest news with #RogerMarshall
Business Wire
10 hours ago
- Business
- Business Wire
Senate HELP Committee Unanimously Passes ESOP Association Legislative Priorities
WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) today unanimously passed a package of legislation consisting of several priorities of The ESOP Association. The two bills, the Employee Ownership Representation Act and the Retire Through Ownership Act, would mark significant changes and improvements to policy and ESOP advocacy within the Department of Labor. The ESOP Association worked closely with Senators and committee staff on both bills and strongly supports their passage by the full Senate. With unanimous and bipartisan passage of both bills, the HELP Committee is sending a clear message to the Department of Labor that Congress has had enough of the anti-ESOP bias at the DOL and is taking concrete steps to support ESOPs. Share 'Today is a significant milestone for ESOPs and employee ownership in America,' said James Bonham, President and CEO of The ESOP Association. 'With unanimous and bipartisan passage of both bills, the HELP Committee is sending a clear message to the Department of Labor that Congress has had enough of the anti-ESOP bias at the DOL and is taking concrete steps to support ESOPs. 'The Retire Through Ownership Act will finally provide additional certainty for ESOP trustees that rely upon an independent expert's appraisal that follows guidelines contained in IRS 59-60, which is both longstanding and accepted. As Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) said in remarks on his legislation today, if those guidelines are followed, there would be a 'safe harbor, and there cannot be a subsequent action' against a business owner selling to an ESOP. We are extremely grateful to Senators Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Kaine for their leadership on this vital legislation that would help undo decades of uncertainty and help spur ESOP creation. 'The Employee Ownership Representation Act would finally ensure ESOPs have a full, independent and unbiased voice at the Department of Labor that has been sorely lacking for decades, and we are grateful to Chairman Cassidy for sponsoring this legislation. We also thank Senators Hassan and Kaine for their authorship of the Advocate for Employee Ownership Act, and the changes made in the bill to include all ESOPs, not just S-Corporations. There are many reasons an ESOP would choose to be a C-Corporation vs. an S-Corporation, and the improved bill ensures all ESOP business types receive equal treatment. 'On behalf of our membership, we would like to thank Chairman Cassidy and Ranking Member Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for their bipartisan leadership, and we commend the HELP Committee for their unanimous package of this vital ESOP legislation'. Retire Through Ownership Act (S. 2403) The Retire Through Ownership Act, sponsored by Senators Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) provides essential clarity on the issue of adequate consideration and will strengthen the foundation of employee ownership and ESOPs in America. The Retire Through Ownership Act would allow an ESOP plan fiduciary to rely in good faith on an independent professional expert business appraiser who utilizes the longstanding well-accepted valuation practices as described in IRS Revenue Ruling 59-60. Without clear legislative or regulatory guidance, ESOP fiduciaries have been required to operate under a cloud of uncertainty and potential liability, even when they are acting prudently and in good faith by hiring qualified, independent business valuation experts. As this guidance is currently non-existent, this bill provides much needed clarity. IRS ruling 59-60 is well understood and broadly accepted and recognizes the myriad factors a professional business appraiser should consider in forming a valuation for closely held businesses. By properly aligning ERISA with long-existing valuation guidance, this legislation prevents the development of multiple competing, or even conflicting, processes or procedures within federal policy, thereby limiting the risk of conflicting interpretations by courts or regulators. For more than 60 years, both government officials and private sector business appraisers have successfully relied on the guidance of this IRS ruling. Employee Ownership Representation Act (S. 1728) The Employee Ownership Representation Act, sponsored by HELP Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-LA), would add two representatives of employee ownership organizations to the ERISA Advisory Council at the Department of Labor. This long-overdue addition will ensure that the voices of America's employee-owners are heard in the regulatory process governing retirement security. With more than 6,500 ESOPs across all 50 states affecting over 14 million people and representing nearly $2 trillion in wealth, the absence of employee ownership voices on the Council has left a glaring gap in both perspective and regulatory action at the Department. In addition, S. 1728 also incorporates the Advocate for Employee Ownership Act (S. 2474), sponsored by Senators Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Steve Daines (R-MT). The bill authorizes the Secretary of Labor to appoint an Advocate for Employee Ownership within the existing Employee Ownership Initiative at the U.S. Department of Labor. The ESOP Association was the primary supporter of the bipartisan creation of the Employee Ownership Initiative at the Department, and this expansion will help further the initial goals of that Initiative. Importantly, S. 2474 was greatly improved in scope between its introduction and final committee passage. The bill now includes all ESOPs regardless of their business structure as an S-Corporation or C-Corporation. This change is vitally important, as 2022 Department of Labor data shows nearly 40 percent of ESOPs nationwide (2,438 of 6,257 total), are C-Corporations. The ESOP Association appreciates the bill's sponsors working to correct this language in S. 2474. Representation for ESOPs matters at the Department of Labor and has long been a priority of The ESOP Association. About The ESOP Association The ESOP Association is the largest organization in the world supporting employee-owned companies, the more than 10 million U.S. employees who participate in an ESOP, and the professionals who provide services to them. Headquartered at the International Employee Ownership Center in Washington, DC and operating as a 501(c)6 organization with the affiliated Employee Ownership Foundation, The ESOP Association conducts and funds academic research, provides more than 160 annual conferences and events attended by nearly 15,000 individuals, and advocates on behalf of employee owners and their businesses to federal and state lawmakers.
The Hill
10 hours ago
- Health
- The Hill
Bipartisan Senate price transparency bill can fix US health care
In the aftermath of Republicans' divisive reconciliation bill, Congress has the opportunity to come together and pass bipartisan legislation to address one of the nation's biggest problems: The broken health care system. Approximately 100 million Americans have health care debt, and one-quarter of insured families avoid care each year due to unknown costs. The Patients Deserve Price Tags Act, recently introduced by Sens. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), can reverse runaway health care costs that are placing a tremendous burden on American families by empowering them to compare and save. Since 2000, hospital prices have increased by 257 percent, which explains why the growth rate in health insurance premiums has outstripped workers' earnings by a ratio of almost 3 to 1 over this timeframe. The Marshall-Hickenlooper bill gives employers and patients the upfront price information they need to protect themselves from overcharges and choose affordable care. It requires the publication of actual prices, including discounted cash and negotiated insurance rates, not estimates, throughout the health care system. And it requires insurers to give patients an advanced explanation of benefits —a breakdown of costs, including their out-of-pocket responsibility — before care is delivered. I joined a letter signed by 40 leading health economists calling on senators to co-sponsor and quickly pass this crucial legislation. Economists understand actual prices are essential to functioning marketplaces that generate fair-market costs. Under the opaque status quo, consumers are essentially required to pay for care with the equivalent of a blank check, giving hospitals and health insurers tremendous market power to overcharge and profiteer. Hidden prices result in wide cost variations for the same care, a sign of market failure. Recent research I conducted for Rice University's Baker Center reveals that mean outpatient hospital prices in Houston vary by nearly 200 percent for the same insurer. A recent study in Health Affairs Scholar shows that colonoscopy rates can vary by seven times for those with the same health coverage. Price transparency corrects this information asymmetry between consumers and providers, putting downward and convergent pressure on prices. It fosters competition and returns excessive health industry profits to patients, businesses, unions, school districts and workers where they belong. Redirecting funds from the health care industrial complex back to the private economy can create an enormous economic stimulus. Employers and employees especially stand to benefit. The average employer-sponsored family health insurance plan now costs $24,000 per year, with workers bearing the majority of the cost through premium deductions and lower wages. One analysis found that about the same amount of employee compensation growth since 2000 has gone to premium costs as to paychecks. Transparency empowers employers to steer workers to high-value care, reducing premium costs and increasing take-home pay. The Marshall-Hickenlooper bill also gives employers access to their claims data and reveals the contractual relationships of their health plan administrators, allowing them to remedy overbilling and spread pricing. My research suggests that lowering annual premiums by just $1,373 per employee can boost the profitability of retail businesses by an average of 12.4 percent. You don't need to be an economist to understand that upfront prices are needed to avoid overcharges and shop for affordable care and coverage. But economists can speak to the significant impact of price transparency on business earnings, worker paychecks and economic dynamism. Actual prices, as required by the Marshall-Hickenlooper bill, can restore affordability, accountability and trust to American health care. That's something people of all political persuasions can support.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Democrat who questioned Roger Marshall at Kansas townhall files campaign papers
A Johnson County Democrat who made national news by driving to Oakley in western Kansas for U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall's townhall has filed paperwork indicating she will run against the senator. Anne Parelkar, of Overland Park, filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission on July 24. She hasn't officially announced a campaign. Parelkar had previously set up a website where she said she was exploring a U.S. Senate run. She also launched a listening tour and spoke at an April 5 protest at the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka. "Kansans deserve leaders who tell the truth, listen first, and put people over politics," the website states. "Anne Parelkar is a Kansas attorney and aspiring public servant exploring a run for U.S. Senate. She believes elected officials should answer to the people. Not to party leaders. Not to political donors. Just to the people." Parelkar was one of the Kansans who drove to Oakley for Marshall's March 1 townhall, where she asked about cutting federal workers. Marshall ultimately walked out of the contentious townhall meeting and was showered by boos. He later walked back a claim that troublemakers were paid to attend the meeting, admitting he did not have evidence to back up the allegation. Parelkar's FEC paperwork designates Anne for Kansas as her principal campaign committee for the 2026 election. Marshall was elected to the Senate in 2020 after previously represented the 1st Congressional District that primarily encompasses western Kansas. He received 53% of the vote, compared to Democrat Barbara Bollier's 42% and Libertarian Jason Buckley's 5%. Marshall's reelection campaign has about $2.7 million cash on hand according to his most recent FEC filings. More: New FEC campaign finance filings show how much money Kansas congressional team has Jason Alatidd is a Statehouse reporter for The Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@ Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd. This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas Democrat files FEC paperwork to run against Sen. Roger Marshall Solve the daily Crossword
Fox News
23-07-2025
- Health
- Fox News
BREAKING: Senator Roger Marshall Reacts to WSJ Report That Trump Was Told He Is in the Epstein Files
Senator Roger Marshall, MD (R-KS), joined The Guy Benson Show today to react live to the breaking Wall Street Journal report that Donald Trump was notified in May of being named in the Epstein files, but the story also emphasizes that simply being listed among hundreds of names does not equate to evidence of wrongdoing. Marshall blasted Democrats for seizing on stories like this as a distraction from their lack of substantive policy, even attempting to repeal Trump's newly passed 'Big Beautiful Law,' which he warned would harm everyday Americans. Sen. Marshall also pushed back on the Left's false claims suggesting the 'Big Beautiful Law' would strip healthcare coverage from vulnerable populations who are unable to work. Listen to the full interview below! Listen to the full interview below: Listen to the full podcast below:
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lawmakers typically get a month off for 'August recess.' Trump wants to cancel it this year.
Every year, senators and House members get out of DC for the month of August. It's known as the "August recess." Trump, eager to get more nominees confirmed, wants the Senate to cancel it. If you're a senator who's made vacation plans for August, you may want to look into whether your trip is refundable. President Donald Trump is leaning on Senate Majority Leader John Thune to cancel the so-called "August recess," when both the House and the Senate go out of session for a month in the dead of summer. The reason: The president is eager to get more of his nominees confirmed. "Hopefully the very talented John Thune, fresh off our many victories over the past two weeks and, indeed, 6 months, will cancel August recess (and long weekends!), in order to get my incredible nominees confirmed," Trump wrote on Truth Social over the weekend. "We need them badly!!!" Thune told reporters on Monday he was "thinking about" canceling the recess and said that senators were working on getting as many nominees "through the pipeline" as they could. At least one other senator has said he's fully on board. "Absolutely, I'm willing to do it," Republican Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas said on Fox News on Sunday. "I'm happy to stay here as long as we're working." More than 20 of Trump's diplomatic nominees are still awaiting confirmation votes. Among them is Kimberly Guilfoyle, who was nominated to serve as US Ambassador to Greece. If Trump is successful, senators will have to stick around for lots of in August, even while their House colleagues get to go home. It wouldn't be the first time this has happened. In 2018, then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell canceled recess for similar reasons. According to the Senate Historical Office, the August recess evolved out of an effort to modernize the way that Congress worked, building in more predictable breaks in the schedule rather than remaining in session until work is finished. It was also especially popular with the spouses of members of Congress, who wanted to spend more time together as a family during the summer. While many lawmakers do take vacations during the month of August or during other shorter recesses throughout the year, they often find themselves busy with other work back home. That includes constituent meetings, town halls, and during election years, lots of campaigning. A Senate GOP source told BI on Monday that senators would likely prefer to be back in their home states to talk about the impact of the "Big Beautiful Bill," the sprawling piece of fiscal and tax legislation that Trump signed into law earlier this month. Read the original article on Business Insider
