Committee on private company policy.

• Position: COMMITTEE FOCUS

Founded in 1997, FEI's Committee on Private Company Policy (CPC-P) is primarily responsible for responding to Congress and the Administration on issues affecting privately held and family-owned businesses. This is achieved through committee-drafted letters, group letters with other organizations, written and oral congressional testimony, and in-person meetings with elected leaders The CPC-P committee is comprised of over active 35 members, with many belonging since its creation.

In the last five years, FEI's CPC-P has submitted or signed onto almost 50 letters on issues including comprehensive tax reform, the estate tax, IC-DISC, America's debt and deficit, the federal budget, provisions in the Affordable Care Act and onerous regulations that could affect private companies negatively, FEI is also an active member of coalitions protecting the interests of privately held and family-owned businesses.

The interests of FEI's private companies have also been represented through congressional testimony The many benefits of congressional testimony include direct interaction with elected leaders, media exposure, archived testimony in the Congressional Record--and most importantly--the ability to help direct or shift the debate on vital issues.

Most recently, FEI was represented by a member of the CPC-P before the House of Representatives' Committee on Ways and Means. Testimony by Mark Smetana, chief financial officer of Eby-Brown Company, based in Naperville, III., focused on the treatment of privately held and family-owned businesses in several tax reform proposals before the Committee. In part, Smetana said, "America's privately held businesses are the backbone to our economic success story. Recognizing the importance of private companies is vital since any workable tax reform must address businesses regardless of their form of organization...