Late last year, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Build Back Better (BBB) package in a partisan vote with all but one Democrat voting for the package and every Republican voting against it.

Following the House vote and days before Christmas, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) announced he would oppose the roughly $1.75 trillion tax and social spending package as it is currently written. However, just this week, Manchin opened the door to supporting a paired down or “skinny" version of the BBB.

Troublingly for small businesses, Manchin specifically noted that he was supportive of rolling back some of the Trump administration's tax cuts and raising taxes on individuals and corporations. Sen. Manchin also said that he would like to use the revenue from these tax increases to enact new climate and social programs as well as to reduce the federal deficit and tame rising inflation.

Manchin's comments show that the issue of raising taxes on small businesses is far from dead and Big “I" advocacy efforts against some of the most onerous provisions remain as important as ever. As negotiations over the tax and spending package continue in the White House and among Democrats in Congress, opposing these tax increases will be a top issue for the Big “I" at the in-person Legislative Conference, which will take place April 27-29.

As negotiations on the BBB package continue in the halls of Congress, the Big “I" will update members on important changes and provide details on the association's advocacy efforts to push back against the package's most onerous small business policies

Wyatt Stewart is Big “I" assistant vice president of federal government affairs.