NVCA’s first-quarter lobbying focuses on tax, immigration reform

The National Venture Capital Association’s spending on federal lobbying ticked up in the first quarter of 2017 compared to the same time period a year ago, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.

The NVCA’s first quarter spending totaled $490,000 in 2017, compared with $428,000 during the same period in 2016, and $324,000 in 2015. For all of 2016, total lobbying expenditures reached $1.8 million, compared with $1.1 million in 2015, according to the data.

Much of the association’s first quarter lobbying this year has focused on tax reform, including carried interest and capital gains tax policies; banking policy, including Dodd-Frank regulations and the implementation of the JOBS Act; and immigration reform.

Issues like those represent the focus of the NVCA’s advocacy activity, and they remain largely constant from quarter to quarter and even administration to administration, according to the NVCA’s Vice President of Communications and Marketing Ben Veghte.

“We have core policy issues that will always be unchanged,” Veghte said. “How they rise and fall is based on the priorities of the new administration.”

Tax and immigration reform are always front and center for the association, he added, but the total dollar amount it spends on a particular issue varies according to the legislative priorities of Congress and the White House.

One current area of focus for the NVCA is the International Entrepreneur Rule, a last-minute executive order passed by President Obama that allows foreign-born startup entrepreneurs to stay in the country if they can show that the venture has strong potential to create jobs and grow rapidly.

The rule is scheduled to go into effect in July, and the new administration hasn’t indicated whether it would repeal or roll it back.

“We’re trying to get a sense from the Trump administration of what their plans are for it,” Veghte said.

Action Item: More info on the International Entrepreneur Rule at http://bit.ly/2rLxoRF

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