Jon Kyl: “I will be brief. For those who have been involved in this issue, it has been discussed actually since last August and…”

“I will be brief. For those who have been involved in this issue, it has been discussed actually since last August and deals with the small companies or businesses that would be paying into the fund that is the subject of this bill. The amendment is designed to reduce the impact of the trust fund on the small- and medium-sized companies and to ensure that the fund does not drive them into bankruptcy. It does principally two things. First, it provides across-the-board relief to small- or midsized companies, those with annual gross revenues of less than $1 billion, by limiting their trust fund contributions to 1.67 percent of their gross revenues. This per se relief should resolve most ability-to-pay problems that are created by the fund with certainty and without administrative burdens. For those who do not qualify for this across-the-board relief or for whom it is not enough, the amendment provides a second form of hardship relief. It authorizes the administrator to reduce the company's fund assessments if the company otherwise would go out of business and would be unable to pay its bills. To be exact, under the amendment, a company can qualify for an adjustment if it can show that its fund payments ``would materially and adversely affect the defendant participant's ability to continue its business and to pay or satisfy its debts generally as and when they come due.'' Under this amendment, access to this form of relief would be unlimited.…”