Mid-Term Results and the Impact on Trucking

By: Colton Lawrence - The Trucker CFO
Posted: Nov 18th 2022 11:34AM

The mid-term elections that took place on November 8 will bring changes to the U.S. House of Representatives when the new Congressional term begins in January. Though a few remaining House races are still being counted at the time of this blog posting, the consensus among the most recent news reports is that Republicans will hold a slight majority in the next Congress. The Democrats have been in the majority in the House for the previous two election cycles.

While we won't know the exact breakout of Democrats and Republicans in the House until the vote count is complete in the undecided Congressional elections, we do know that the Democrats will continue to have control of the Senate during the next two years. The U.S. Senate seat in Georgia will go to a runoff election on December 6, but the November mid-terms saw the Democrats reach 50 Senate seats for the next term, which is the number of seats the Dems held following the 2020 election.

During the election cycle two years ago, our Trucker CFO Podcast spent some time examining what changes owner-operators, fleet owners, independent contractors and the trucking industry could expect to see based on the outcome of the 2020 election results for the House, Senate and White House.

Back in 2020, our analysis of the national office election results was done in a non-partisan manner. We focused our observations on how the changes brought about by the national elections would play out for the trucking industry, placing a particular eye on what the proposals coming out of a Biden Administration with Democrats in control of the House and Senate could mean for owner-operators, independent contractors and small trucking operations.

For 2022, we decided to take the same approach with results that are coming out of the mid-term elections, and we're thrilled to be sharing our latest Trucker CFO podcast with our Expediter Online audience. Just as we did in 2020, we are looking at the election results and the changes coming in the makeup of the next Congress and asking key questions through a non-partisan lens. For instance, how will the new division in government with a Republican-controlled House and Democrats in the Senate majority work with each other? What will the narrow majorities in both the House and Senate mean for how the legislative branch of government will operate? What will this new alignment of party control in the House mean for the Biden Administration?

To look at these and other questions, I asked Greg Thompson, our podcast producer, to join me for this episode of the Trucker CFO. Prior to entering the trucking industry as a communications professional in 1998, Greg spent 14 years working as a reporter and feature writer for a daily newspaper in a medium-sized market.

Elections typically bring about some form of change, and the goal of the discussion that Greg and I had during the podcast was to examine what could be on the horizon as we move toward a new Congress. It was reported this week that California Republican Congressman Kevin McCarthy will be handed the gavel when he becomes the Speaker of the House in January.

In the run-up to the election, Rep. McCarthy stated that one of his first acts as Speaker would be to repeal the legislation that created the funding and structure to add 87,000 agents to the Internal Revenue Service. Is this something that a Speaker McCarthy would have the power to do? As you'll hear, we ask this question and a few others that will be of interest to trucking professionals, especially those owner-operators, fleet owners and independent contractors who are running businesses within the industry.

Each day we are getting closer to the new year and a new Congress. Without question, it will be very interesting to see what takes place with our elected officials over the next two years. Regardless of your political leanings, if you are a part of a dynamic industry like trucking, it's important that you have good information, and that is particularly true when it comes to having a depth of perspective on the policies and laws that can impact your chosen career and your bottom line if you are a business owner.

One of the missions of our team at Trucker CFO is to make sure that we are providing the best information possible on the topics that matter to trucking professionals. Running a business and having a career in this industry requires a serious attention to detail.

At the end of the day, it's about collecting information and getting perspective. Ideally, you will be able to make your key decisions based on the information that you collect. With that in mind, we would like to invite you to listen to our latest podcast. As you'll hear, we worked hard to talk about upcoming changes on the political landscape without discussing politics. We really did try to do our best to thread that needle.

We hope that you'll find what we shared through the podcast to be a valued perspective that can assist you in moving your trucking career and your trucking business forward. We have tremendous respect for everyone working within trucking. We hope we can serve as a resource as you continue to work to place yourself in the best position for success within an industry that is continually changing.

At Trucker CFO, we're ready to help. If you have questions about taxes, accounting or other aspects of your business, or if you would like to learn more about Trucker CFO, please visit us at TruckerCFO.com.

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