Government Watch

Withholding requirement protested The “three percent withholding requirement,” does not spell “relief” for security companies, according to the Security Industry Association. The requirement, which is scheduled to take effect in January 2011, would force federal, local and state governments to withhold and remit to the Internal Revenue Service three percent of payment made to contractors--including security companies--for goods and services. SIA is part of the “Government Withholding Relief Coalition” a group of 83 associations, formed to repeal the requirement, which issued a statement in late April following the release of a new Department of Defense report that said the requirement will cost DoD $17 billion to comply over the first five years. “The DoD’s estimated costs are already substantially more than the savings and the rest of the federal government and state and local governments will have enormous costs as well,” the statement said. The coalition supports H.R. 1023 and S. 777, which would repeal the law. Sprinkler bill gets two more Illinois sponsors Two Illinois congressmen, Rep. Jesse L. Jackson and Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, in April signed on as co-sponsors of H.R. 1742, a bill that would amend the IRS code to reduce the tax depreciation time for retrofitting fire sprinklers from 39 years to five years. The Illinois congressmen join 126 co-sponsors of the bill. The bill was referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means on March 28. A companion bill in the Senate, S582, has been referred to the Committee on Finance. Louisiana adopts standards for Alarm Industry Apprenticeship The Louisiana Life Safety and Security Association, a chartered chapter of the NBFAA, announced April 24 that Louisiana’s state Department of Labor, Apprenticeship Division, has approved LLSSA’s standards for a statewide registered apprenticeship program. Ron Foreman, LLSSA’s apprenticeship chairman, said in a statement, “Our state is in dire need of a trained employee labor pool, and this new workforce initiative for our industry will go far to meet that need.” He said that the NBFAA and Art Webster, apprenticeship program consultant, and the programs developed by the California Alarm Association where critical to the LLSSA’s success in this endeavor.