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STEVE CASE, CEO OF REVOLUTION LLC AND A MEMBER OF THE PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL ON JOBS AND COMPETITIVENESS: “From the White House to the halls of Congress, there’s a growing recognition that the best way to jump start job creation and ensure America’s long-term economic competitiveness is to improve the environment for entrepreneurs to start new firms and expand existing ones. I commend Senators Coons and Rubio for coming together to introduce the AGREE Act, an important step in the right direction for helping entrepreneurs create jobs and build significant companies here in the United States.”

U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: “The Chamber shares the goal of Sens. Rubio and Coons to identify and package provisions in a single bill that would promote job creation.  Enacting policies aimed at growing the private sector must be the central focus and the most immediate legislative priority for the Congress…The Chamber stands ready to work with both parties in Congress to enact policies that create jobs and promote and sustain economic growth.”

 NATIONAL FEDERATION OF INDEPENDENT BUSINESS: “The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the nation’s leading small business advocacy organization, applauds Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Chris Coons (D-DE) for introducing a bipartisan bill that would provide a longer term extension for the job creating small business expensing provision,” said Susan Eckerly, Senior Vice President for Public Policy at NFIB.

 “The Rubio-Coons bill would extend for three years the popular small business provision to increase the expensing amounts for small business capital investments such as equipment and real property.  An October 2011 NFIB survey on small business economic trends stated that future small business capital expenditures and job growth are still at low levels, and the small business expensing provision would encourage businesses to expand their operations and create jobs.”

 INTERNATIONAL FRANCHISE ASSOCIATION (IFA): “We applaud the bipartisan efforts of Sens. Coons and Rubio for developing bipartisan legislation that will solve some of the uncertainty facing IFA members on tax issues, while also providing incentives to America’s service men and women returning from Afghanistan, Iraq and Southwest Asia interested in becoming franchise owners. Veterans have a proven track record of success within franchising, due to its structure, systems and focus on operational excellence. The AGREE Act would boost the number of veteran-owned franchise businesses, while also helping reduce the overall unemployment rate of veterans.” 

 LATINO PARTNERSHIP FOR CONSERVATIVE PRINCIPLES: “The impact of the Agree Act immigration provision is quite significant.  It will go a long way to reduce the enormous immigrant visa backlog that exists for workers from countries like India and China,” said Alfonso Aguilar, Executive Director of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles.  “This is good news for high-tech American companies who currently have a very hard time recruiting and hiring professionals with advanced degrees from abroad simply because there are no visas available.”

 NATIONAL FEDERATION OF INDEPENDENT BUSINESS FLORIDA: “The AGREE Act is a great example of members recognizing the need to work across the aisle to create pro-business solutions. Florida’s unemployment rate is still over 10 percent, so Senator Rubio’s work to help our state’s economic growth comes at a critical time. Senator Rubio is doing exactly what we sent him to Washington to do – make a difference for small business now.”

 DAN MITCHELL, THE CATO INSTITUTE: “The provisions are generally positive…Lower tax rates on investing are key for job creation. Temporary tax cuts usually are not effective because businesses and entrepreneurs generally don’t make permanent decisions to expand output and hire more workers based on short term tax provisions. But the Rubio-Coons proposal addresses this problem by using three-year windows.”

PRINTING ASSOCIATION OF FLORIDA: “Extension of accelerated depreciation and enhanced Section 179 expensing as incorporated in Senators Rubio and Coons’ AGREE Act are imperative for Florida’s graphic arts industry – the largest manufacturing employer in the State.  The Printing Association of Florida appreciates the senators’ initiative in putting these bipartisan and worthwhile proposals forward.
 
The rapid and ongoing advances in graphic arts technology require the State’s printers to continuously invest in new equipment to keep pace, remain competitive, and provide jobs for Florida’s citizens in an industry where profit margins are already razor thin.
 
The dampening effect of sour economic conditions over the past several years and, more relevant, likely into 2012, make extension of these favorable tax provisions imperative from our point-of-view.”