NAM sets 2006 policy agenda

The NAM has developed a policy agenda through 2006. That agenda includes:

Reduce production costs in the U.S.:

• Immediately address the critical shortage of reliable domestic oil and natural gas supply to include legislation permitting deep water exploration.
• Build a plentiful, flexible, diverse and affordable energy supply through a broad range of options to address our nation's energy supply crisis, including policies that open the Outer Continental Shelf and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for development of natural resources.
• Reduce health care costs by focusing on chronic disease prevention and management, transforming health care from paper records to electronic medical records and encouraging the growth of consumer-oriented options such as Health Savings Accounts and Health Reimbursement Arrangements.
• Reduce excessive regulatory costs by ensuring that scientific and economic analysis is applied to regulations.
• Enact sensible, cost-effective multiple emissions policy, such as the President's Clear Skies initiative, and avoid inefficient and anti-growth command and control mandates on emissions such as carbon dioxide.

• Successfully conclude the Doha Round of World Trade Organization negotiations by the end of 2006.
• Secure open access to foreign markets by approving the recently-concluded free trade agreement with Peru, concluding negotiations underway with others, and initiating negotiations with additional countries. Approve legislation to address nuisance tariffs that burden U.S. manufacturing.
• Ensure compliance with existing trade and economic agreements, including enforcement of all provisions in Free Trade Agreements, as well as WTO and International Monetary Fund commitments. Also seek Congressional support for eliminating technical barriers arising from conflicting U.S. and foreign standards and regulatory practices.
• Make improvements in trade with China by addressing China's undervalued currency, counterfeiting of products, subsidized production and exports, and extensive market access barriers.

• Make permanent the tax relief enacted since 2001 including marginal rate cuts and reduced rates for dividends and capital gains, death tax repeal and depreciation reforms.
• Enact a permanent and strengthened R&D tax credit and repeal the corporate alternative minimum tax.
• Provide increased funding for federal science programs and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program.
• Accelerate technology and innovation by encouraging more rapid domestic deployment of broadband by deregulatory policies.
• Make the exercise of patent rights more effective worldwide with a better integrated international system and reverse the global rise in trade of illicit goods that has marked a decline in exercise of trademark rights.
• Enact rational legislation that replaces the interest rate used to determine current funding liabilities for defined benefit plans.
• Build on and make permanent provisions that encourage participation in defined contribution plans.