Death Tax Repeal Act & No Help From ICE

Death Tax Repeal Act & No Help From ICE

Death Tax Repeal Act & No Help From ICE

I'm Lacy Gray with Washington Ag Today.

The bill repealing the federal estate tax has headed to the Senate after passage in the House on Thursday, but the joy over that may be short lived if the threat of a possible veto of the bill by President Obama materializes. Washington Congressman Dan Newhouse shares where he stands on the bill.

NEWHOUSE: I voted for it and was happy to. I've seen first hand the devastation that families go through having to liquidate part of their business, or their farm, or even lose the farm in order to pay the tax bill. A lot of people may be land rich but cash poor; you don't have liquid assets and the tax man doesn't wait, you have to come up with the money and pay them. We did get an alert from the administration that more than likely his staff would recommend a veto. I just think that the policy itself is flawed, is wrong, and that we should, regardless of what the next step in the process may or may not be, we should move forward and pass legislation that we think is right.

In early March we spoke with WAFLA Director Dan Fazio about the work WAFLA is doing to obtain safe harbor for employers who assist workers in applying for the executive action programs DAPA and DACA. Part of that work was to send a letter to the director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement requesting just that. The reply Fazio recently received back from ICE stated that there would be no "safe harbor" for employers who find workers are illegal, and that employers could be subject to civil or criminal penalties when employing or continuing to employ an unauthorized worker.

That's Washington Ag Today.

I'm Lacy Gray with the Ag Information Network of the West.

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