• Sign up for Day 1 or Day 2 separately at $275 per day.

• Two-day workshop package - $445 for the first person from a member firm and $425 each for additional personnel.

Sign up by January 25 – A $50 per person surcharge will be added for late registrants.

Nonmember pricing is available.

Complete information and registration forms are available upon request from MLA at 800-747-6529. Or, simply reply to this email and we’ll send complete information today! Information and a registration form also are available at www.themla.com.

Note: Attendance at Day 1 is mandatory for attending Day 2 unless person has proficiency at reading blueprints.

THIS MONTH ON CAPITOL HILL

Congress returns from a two-week Thanksgiving recess eager to complete unfinished business – including funding government operations – to recess for the year. With the 2008 presidential primary kick-off just weeks away, members of Congress are anxious to find compromises to settle the “must-do” list of items. A compromise on auto efficiency standards reached over the recess could bring final passage of the energy bill as soon as this week. The energy bill contains a number of incentives and tax credits for green building that could benefit the building supply industry. The greatly debated farm bill also could see final Senate action this week. The House will speed through a series of noncontroversial bills while they await Senate action on these items and the annual spending bills.

NLBMDA Achieves Protection for Innocent Dealers in Illegal Logging Initiative

NLBMDA-advanced changes to the "Legal Timber Protection Act" (H.R. 1497) were incorporated in a substitute amendment offered by House Resources Chairman Nick Rahall (D-WV) during committee markup in mid-November. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) agreed to revise his Illegal Logging Amendment to the Farm Bill to incorporate the new Rahall language. NLBMDA and our coalition partners were instrumental in working with the House Resources Committee to draft revisions that addressed our concerns with the original bills, including ensuring that lumber dealers are covered by "innocent owner" protection in the event that illegally harvested timber makes its way into dealers’ yards without their knowledge. This is truly an unprecedented effort that had NLBMDA at the table with industry and environmental groups to develop a compromise to address illegal logging without inflicting unfair and harmful consequences on lumber dealers and other users of imported wood products.

ISSUES IN BRIEF

Estate Tax: The Senate Finance Committee held a hearing November 15 on the planning challenges posed by the current estate tax system. NLBMDA and our coalition partners through the Family Business Estate Tax Coalition (FBETC) submitted a letter stressing the continued need for permanent repeal of this onerous tax. The Coalition was represented in the hearing by a small family rancher who shared his family’s struggle to preserve the business. Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) expressed their continued commitment to finding a compromise that could pass the Senate in 2008.

Mortgage Assistance: Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) announced plans to introduce legislation to allow bankruptcy courts to modify the terms of home mortgages in bankruptcy proceedings to help homeowners keep their homes. He also plans to reform the means test provisions of the 2005 bankruptcy law to enable judges to consider debtors’ “individual circumstances” and ensure that medical debts can always be discharged. Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) has introduced similar legislation (S. 2136), and a narrower effort is currently under consideration in the House Judiciary Committee (H.R. 3609).

Peru Trade Agreement: The Peru Free Trade Agreement passed the House on November 8 by a vote of 285-132. It had the support of only 109 House Democrats despite the inclusion of more strident labor and environmental protections than previous free trade agreements. It is scheduled for a Senate vote this week.

Source: NLBMDA Advocate, December 2007

LUMBER NEWS – QUICK GLIMPSES

Freddie Mac Announces Biggest Home Price Drop in 25 Years… Inventories, restrictive lending, and a credit crunch factored into the lowest prices on homes seen in a quarter century, according to a report put out Tuesday by Freddie Mac.

The Freddie Mac Conventional Mortgage Home Price Index Classic Series measures all non-governmental loans and includes both home purchase and mortgage refinancing databases.

Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac's chief economist, said in a statement that "lenders have tightened underwriting standards, and the turbulence in the capital markets led to a spike in the cost of jumbo loans."

Source: LBM Daily, December 5, 2007

84 Lumber to Make Further Cuts… 84 Lumber said it is cutting about 40 positions at its headquarters due to the slumping housing market.

Employees were notified Friday, with some having been offered different positions. The cuts are to employees at the company’s headquarters in Eighty Four, Pa. The company has seen the number of employees at its corporate headquarters fall in the past year to approximately 650 from about 800 employees.

84 Lumber is in the second year of its three-year strategic growth plan, announced in April 2006, geared to making the company a $10 billion sales organization by the end of 2009. However, 2006 sales were flat at $3.92 billion compared to sales in 2005.

Last week, the pro dealer held grand opening celebrations of four new locations across the country, with simultaneous events in Oregon, Louisiana, Florida and Utah.

Source: Home Channel News, December 5, 2007

Take Complaints Seriously, Keep Customer in the Loop… Most small businesses face unhappy customers from time to time, but now those with grievances can post rants on the Internet. In this BusinessWeek article, an attorney for a New York dry-cleaning company that sued a customer who bad-mouthed the business online discusses how to respond to complaints by clients. Click this link BusinessWeek  for entire story.

Source: U.S. Chamber SmartBrief, December 5, 2007

Court Overturns 'Healthy Forests Initiative' Rule… Wednesday a federal appeals court declared it illegal for logging and burning projects in national forests to take place without first analyzing their effects on the environment. The Bush administration had the rule passed under the 'Healthy Forests Initiative' in 2003.

The suit was brought by the Sierra Club and the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign in 2004. Sierra Club lawyer Eric Huber said, “This ruling will help ensure that vast swaths of our national forests are not logged without environmental reviews under the guise of forest management or fuel suppression.”

Source: LBM Daily, December 6, 2007

Energy Bill Contains Provision to Continue Payments to Rural Counties Hard Hit by Logging Cutbacks… Approximately 700 other rural counties in the United States depend on payments from the federal government to cushion the impact of losses to logging. Those payments have been in danger of being cut, but so far have survived. It would appear they will again escape the ax.

”Bottom line, it is critical funding for counties and schools,” said Humboldt County Public Works Director Thomas Mattson. “To me, it's very important and a significant portion of my budget.”

Source: LBM Daily, December 10, 2007

Pulte Homes to Exit Kansas City… Low sales and a tumultuous housing sector have forced Pulte Homes to begin an exit of the Kansas City market. More than 20 employees will be laid off just days before Christmas as the first stages of the 10-month exit begins.

The builder will complete 60 homes under construction, some of which have been sold, and plans to sell any remaining lots and raw land to other developers and builders.

Pulte, the No. 3 in the region for building permits, has property in Lenexa, Kansas City North, Liberty, and Lee's Summit. Since the mid-1990s, the Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based company has built about 2,200 homes in the metro area.

The builder also says that even though it is withdrawing from the market, long-term warranties will be honored.

Source: BuilderOnline Update, December 11, 2007

Private Equity Firm Purchases Weyerhaeuser's Massachusetts Distribution Center… Roark Capital Group, based in Atlanta, announced yesterday it acquired Weyerhaeuser's Distribution Center, located in Assonet, Massachusetts. Roark bought the wholesale distributor of building products, which showcases Weyerhaeuser's engineered wood products, in particular. "We are proud to add Weyerhaeuser's top-rated iLevel product line to our offering," announced Frank Paul, CEO of Wood Structures. "We look forward to providing ongoing exceptional service to customers of WDC and Wood Structures."

Source: LBM Daily, December 12, 2007

84 Lumber to Close 12 Stores in Nine States… A week after announcing layoffs at its headquarters, 84 Lumber has closed 12 units in nine states, according to an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The industry’s third largest pro dealer will pull out of Redding, Calif. and Manchester, Tenn. due to slow housing starts, and shutter fives stores in metropolitan areas where the company has other locations: Loveland, Ohio; Palatine, Ill.; Granite City, Ill.; Ellicott City, Md.; and Amsterdam, N.Y.

Four other lumberyards – Greensboro, N.C.; Pineville, N.C.; Columbia, S.C.; and Slidell, La. – were described as relocations in areas were bigger stores had been built nearby. A store in Merced, Calif. is being converted into a components plant.

Employees were notified Wednesday, according to the newspaper.

Source: Home Channel News, December 12, 2007

Footnote to 84 Lumber Story… Of the 12 closings, only two units – Redding, Calif. and Manchester, Tenn. – actually are going away. Both were the result of slow sales, being situated in markets where annual housing starts have dipped below 500 per year. Even if the markets were to have an amazing rebound, 84 Lumber prefers to operate in markets with at least 3,000 housing starts per year, Jeff Nobers, 84 Lumber vice president of marketing and public relations said in an interview.

Source: ProSales Business Update, December 12, 2007

Congress Takes First Step Toward Enacting Federal Climate Change Legislation… Senate Democrats last month passed a climate change bill out of the Senate Environment and Public Work Committee ("EPW") and on to the full Senate for a vote. The bill, known as the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2007 (the "bill" or "Lieberman-Warner"), would establish a nationwide cap on greenhouse gas ("GHG") emissions with the objective of reducing greenhouse gas ("GHG") emissions to 15% below 2005 levels by the year 2020, and to 70% below 2005 levels by the year 2050.

Source: Marten Law Group Environmental News, December 12 2007

Senate Passes Energy Bill Without Mandating LEED… Yesterday, the US Senate passed HR 6, "The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007."   It does not endorse one green building rating system over others, as compared to legislation passed by the House earlier this year would have mandated that all federal buildings be certified to LEED. 

The bill will now be sent back to the House for approval and then to the President for his signature. 

Source: Treated Wood Council, December 14, 2007

Even Though U.S. House of Representatives Approves Funding, Senate Fails to Close Timber Payments Deal… The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation providing at least $1.5 billion to those 700 rural counties in 39 states hardest hit by federal logging cutbacks. Unfortunately, the popularly supported timber plan failed in the Senate by a single vote. Republican senators from Oregon, Utah, and Alaska joined Western Democratic senators supporting the vote.

Source: LBM Daily, December 17, 2007

Senate Approves Bill To Eliminate Taxes On Forgiven Mortgage Debt … In a move to address the subprime lending crisis and to help struggling home loan borrowers, the Senate on Dec. 14 approved legislation that would eliminate any taxes home owners might face when banks renegotiate the terms of a home loan and forgive a portion of the outstanding mortgage debt. The change in the tax law would cap untaxable forgiven mortgage debt at $2 million and apply only to principal residences.

Existing tax rules under Section 108 of the Internal Revenue Code impel many struggling home owners to seek foreclosure over restructuring their loan with lenders because forgiven mortgage debt is taxed as ordinary income.

S. 1394, the Mortgage Cancellation Relief Act of 2007, would remove this tax burden on mortgage indebtedness, encourage market-based restructuring between lenders and home owners and discourage foreclosures.

Source: National Association of Home Builders, December 17, 2007

IS CONVENIENCE WORTH THE RISK?

• Transplants

• Durable medical equipment (e.g., c-pap machines for sleep apnea, wheelchairs, hospital beds, oxygen, etc.)

• Prosthetics

• Ambulance services

• Hospice care

These items and services can add thousands of dollars to a claim and may not be fully covered by your current plan. For example, the limit for a wheel chair may be $2,000, but the cost can range between $1,000 and $40,000. Transplants are typically limited for each surgery, or a plan may limit the number of transplants allowed in a lifetime. These costs would be disastrous for the average family.

So, should you offer your employees coverage for routine, low-cost expenses – or for the catastrophic events that could be financially devastating?

Federated’s Health Choice^® plan may be the answer.* It pays up to the limits of the policy without restrictions or caps placed on these specific services (deductibles and coinsurance apply).

Please contact Federated Insurance to help you review your current health plan and make sure you and your employees are covered properly for possibly catastrophic claims.

*Federated’s group health insurance plans are not available in all states.

MLA is proud to endorse….