IPC battles EPA, claims partial victory

Circuits Assembly, May, 2002

IPC (Northbrook, IL) has announced a victory in its efforts to pass a realistic depreciation bill for the electronics assembly and printed circuit board industries. Congress and the Bush Administration recently reached an agreement to pass an economic stimulus package that includes a significant accelerated depreciation provision for the electronic interconnection industry and other U.S. manufacturers. The bipartisan effort received support from nearly every congressman and senator IPC contacted to support the bill.

The Job Creation and Worker Assistance Act of 2002, which was signed into law by President Bush on March 9, contains a 30 percent accelerated depreciation benefit over the next three years that will spur investment in manufacturing equipment and assist in the recovery of the printed circuit board (PCB) and electronics manufacturing services (EMS) industry. The applicable time period for equipment covered under the new law is property that was acquired after September 10, 2001, and before September 11, 2004.

IPC also filed comments opposing the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA, Washington, D.C.) proposed Cross-Media Electronic Reporting and Record-keeping Rule (CROMERRR), created to establish a framework for electronic reporting and record-keeping for all EPA environmental regulations.

EPA developed CROMERRR to comply with the Government Paperwork Elimination Act of 1998, which requires Federal agencies to enable electronic reporting and record keeping by 2003. IPC disagrees that the proposed rule will reduce paperwork and requested that EPA withdraw the proposed rule in its comments.

IPC believes the proposed CROMERRR would necessitate expensive upgrades for current computer systems and prohibit the current use of electronic means to store data intended to meet EPA record-keeping requirements. IPC's comments also highlighted EPA's failure to conduct a risk assessment or cost/benefit analysis of the need for CROMERRR's anti-fraud provisions.

To view IPC's comments, visit www.ipc.org/html/CROMERRR comments.pdf.