The Morning Wrap

Robocall Reform: An Iowa-based conservative political action committee has asked the Federal Election Commission to override parts of a Minnesota law that curbs "robocalls." The American Future Fund argues that restrictions on the prerecorded campaign phone calls infringe on federal laws that oversee campaign finance, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. The state law requires use of live operators. The FEC can't nullify the law, but it can issue an advisory opinion.

H1N1 in D.C.: Several Washington-area companies are adjusting their sick-leave policies in light of this year's flu season. Akerman Senterfitt, for instance, recently updated its rules to allow employees to stay home with full pay -- without using leave time -- for H1N1-related absences, according to the Washington Post. But not all companies offer paid time off. A bill introduced in the House this week would require employers that don't offer paid sick leave to pay for as many as five days for workers who are sent home because of swine flu or other contagious diseases.

Abortion and Health Care: After the health care bill passed by the House Saturday included a restriction on abortion coverage, opponents of the procedure are lobbying for a similar provision in the Senate version of insurance reform legislation. Both sides credited a forceful lobbying effort by Roman Catholic bishops with the success of the provision, says the New York Times. Some conservative Senate Democrats are pushing for a similar block on the use of federal subsidies for insurance that covers elective abortions.

D.C. Sniper: John Allen Muhammad, better known as the D.C. Sniper, is set to be executed tomorrow. A Los Angeles Times story examines the 2002 decision by then-U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft to move the case from Maryland, where the death penalty is on hold, to Virginia, where executions proceed swiftly. Muhammad's lawyers have appealed to the Supreme Court.

Comments

[Nicole Belson Goluboff, Esq.]

Re: "H1N1 in D.C.," as lawmakers craft legislation that would remove an untenable financial penalty for taking sick leave - lost pay - they should also eliminate the steep penalty for telecommuting. To help contain the spread of the H1N1 virus, the Obama Administration has wisely encouraged employers to permit both leave and telecommuting, and both options must be affordable.

Right now, telecommuting can be too expensive for Americans who work for out-of-state employers. If, for example, a Connecticut resident works for a New York company and agrees to telecommute when her son comes down with the flu, she may be subject to double taxation on the income she earns at home: She may be taxed once by Connecticut on the Connecticut wages and then a second time by New York. The threat of owing two states taxes on the same compensation can force potentially contagious employees to reject the telework option, sending their ill children to school - or ignoring their own symptoms - and going to work.

A bi-partisan federal bill called the Telecommuter Tax Fairness Act (H.R. 2600)would eliminate the double tax penalty for telecommuting across state lines. It would bar states like New York from taxing the income nonresidents earn in their states of residence.

Any legislation designed to allow Americans to care for themselves or their family members when illness strikes without undue financial risk must provide for telecommuter tax fairness as well as paid leave.