FEI committees' 'top 12 for 2012'.

• Position: FEI ADVOCACY - Brief article

To advance the agenda of its membership and help to secure a better eco-nomic future, FEI's advocacy committees and its government affairs staff have identified 12 top advocacy issues to focus on during 2012. These issues fall into the categories of tax, financial reform and government reform.

The TAX ISSUES are:

* Alleviate uncertainty in the U.S. Tax Code for private companies.

* Enact corporate tax reform that lowers the statutory corporate income tax rate, adopts a territorial tax system and avoids industry-specific revenue offsets.

* Achieve pension funding stabilization and avoid significant Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) premium increases.

* Immediately reenact the tax extender provisions that expired at the end of 2011.

* Preserve tax treatment of employer-provided retirement plans.

* Enact a permanent research and development credit and strengthen the "alternative simplified credit" formula to 20 percent.

FINANCIAL REFORM Issues:

* Enact legislation preserving derivatives end-user exemptions (related to rules in the...