U.S. Legislative News

NAFA-Supported EV Tax Credit Reform Legislation Introduced

Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Gary Peters (D-MI), and Representative Dan Kildee (D-MI) introduced the Driving America Forward Act (S.1094/H.R.2256) on April 9. The legislation would add 400,000 units on top of the original 200,000 units limited by the manufacturer for the 30D plug-in electric vehicle tax credit. The extra 400,000 credits would be worth up to $7,000 (the initial 200,000 would still go up to $7,500). The bill also extends the expired hydrogen fuel cell tax credit for 10 years.

The bill is endorsed by NAFA and a broad community of stakeholders, with 60 organizations listed as supporters at the time of introduction. As more automakers move towards the 200,000-vehicle limit, with GM and Tesla already reaching it, the EV market could face disruption as rising prices jeopardize wider consumer adoption. While the EV tax credit has several detractors in Congress, members who support the credit feel that the incentive continues to encourage investment in the nascent EV auto market. The importance of supporting the budding EV industry is underscored by the fact that market rivals, such as China and Europe, continue to outpace the U.S. in the EV market.

NAFA is actively working with members of the EV Drive Coalition to generate additional support for the legislation as the credit can be a critical factor for fleets to make the business case for electric vehicles.

International Trade Commission Publishes Underwhelming Report on USCMA

On April 19, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) issued a report assessing the likely impact of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). The ITC is the independent, bipartisan, quasijudicial Federal agency that provides trade analysis to Congress and the Administration. The ITC report looks at the impact of the agreement on the U.S. economy as a whole, specific industry sectors, and the interests of U.S. consumers.

The ITC report predicts that USCMA would result in nominal gains for the U.S. GDP and employment. The report provides a slightly different outlook from the U.S. Trade Representative’s report on the growth of jobs in the auto sector due to rules of origin changes, with smaller predicted gains in employment. The ITC also forecasts slight increases in auto prices due to the complex rules of origin requirements in the agreement.

A sticking point with many House Democrats voicing opposition to USMCA has been the lack of labor law reform in Mexico that would be needed to enforce the provisions in the USMCA. The agreement is now bolstered as Mexico’s lower legislative House passed a labor law reform bill on April 11, which is set to be taken up by the Mexican Senate in the coming weeks.

NAFA has expressed concerns in the past regarding any tariffs or trade requirements that increase the cost of autos or auto parts, which would extend to any new trade agreements such as the USMCA.

Federal Data Privacy Bill Draft in the Works

Work on a federal data privacy framework law is reportedly making progress as the EU commissioner in charge of data protection, Vera Jourova, has been meeting with Senate leaders from the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. The discussions have revolved around the data privacy topic along with other technology-related issues. The EU implemented its bloc-wide privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), about a year ago, requiring entities to comply with stringent data collection mandates in an attempt to protect the privacy rights of individuals.

A bipartisan group including Sens. Roger Wicker (R-MS), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Brian Schatz (D-HI) is currently working on draft privacy legislation. It is unlikely that a U.S. federal privacy law would be a mirror image of the EU regulations, but it is more than likely that specific provisions from the EU regulation will find themselves in a U.S. privacy framework proposal. Several large tech companies are pushing for the U.S. to adopt a federal privacy law, but many contentious issues such as state preemption and FTC enforcement powers remain to be resolved.

Vehicle-generated data is of particular interest for fleets, as the issue of who owns and controls this data can be extremely unclear with the vehicle owner, OEMs, and drivers all involved in the process. The EU’s GDPR has imposed significant burdens on European fleets who need to comply with the regulation. NAFA will continue monitoring any efforts to advance a U.S. federal data privacy law and assess the impacts it may have on fleets.