Corporate leaders long critical of Congress’ fiscal stand-offs are encouraged by what they see as progress on year-end efforts to fund the government, pass highway legislation and renew expired business tax breaks.
“You kind of line these all up and you say, ‘OK, this is good,'” Randall Stephenson, chairman and CEO of AT&T, said on a call with reporters Tuesday. “It appears Congress is moving. It appears that there is going to be legislation passed that is going to accomplish a lot of things that have been queued up for a long time that can bring some predictability.”
Stephenson is the chairman of the Business Roundtable, a group of big business CEOs that lobbies Congress.
The Roundtable released a survey of its CEOs Tuesday finding that they expect business expansion and investment to slow over the next half-year, the third straight quarter of declining expectations.
The worsening outlook, Stephenson said, is attributable largely to government regulations and uncertainty about taxes and regulations that have crimped executives’ ability to invest.
Nevertheless, there are signs of hope that Congress could act on items of major significance to large businesses this month, Stephenson said.
In particular, he called the prospects of Congress renewing expired tax breaks, including ones relating to business investment, “promising.” In recent weeks, tax writers in the House and Senate have been working on a compromise related to the dozens of expired provisions that must be re-upped before the end of the year for businesses to take advantage of the breaks they provide.
Other business priorities include a multi-year highway spending bill that Congress is working on this week and approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal negotiated by President Obama.
Business groups have pushed lawmakers to avoid showdowns over funding the government over the course of a long and contentious relationship between President Obama and Republicans, who now have majorities in both chambers.
“The message has been the same,” said John Engler, president of the Business Roundtable. “What has also been the same, unfortunately, has been the lack of response.”
That may be changing. But the group also warned that factors outside of Congress are causing concerns among business leaders. Those include worries about terrorism perpetrated by the Islamic State, the possible political fallout from the Syrian refugee crisis and general fears about slowing economic growth overseas.
