Federal License Fee Threat Derailed for Now

The House and Senate Appropriations Committees have rejected the proposal in the Obama administration’s proposed federal budget to impose new “User Fees” for alcohol beverage licensees. You will recall that the President included in his budget proposal a $300 per year fee for alcohol beverage retailers, largely to underwrite the Tax and Trade Bureau budget. ABL vigorously opposed this provision and worked with other industry groups to have the fee removed from the budget during the House and Senate Committee deliberations. We will need to be vigilant that the fee does not crop back into the budget as deliberations continue.