WASHINGTON, D.C.— House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) toured two businesses in his district that will be able to award their employees additional benefits as a direct result of the recently signed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which he helped lead through Congress. At both Gnarly Barley Brewing Company in Hammond and Blessey Marine Services in Elmwood, owners spoke about how the additional savings they will see under the bill will allow them to provide their employees with benefits like health care and bonuses, as well as plans to invest more in the future.


Scalise tours Gnarly Barley Brewing Company of Hammond with owners Zac and Cari Caramonta, and speaks at Blessey Marine Services of Elmwood.

Check out the highlights here:

Fox 8 New Orleans:
“House Majority Whip Steve Scalise says the reform package includes provisions, which should help everyone from flood victims to those impacted by coastal erosion.

“He left the insurance industry to pursue a dream, and now Zac Caramonta says his future just got brighter. ‘The guild and the brewers have been working 10 years to get this pushed through.’

“Caramonta’s Gnarly Barley Brewery, and Louisiana’s 30 other craft breweries, stand to benefit under new tax reform provisions which will see the taxes paid on each keg of beer cut in half. Cari Caramonta: ”This is really going to help save us a lot of money and be able to treat our employees even better and allow them to have some health benefits and continue to grow.’

…

“Scalise says in spite of Democratic opposition many other American businesses should benefit as well from tax reform, including Blessey Marine in Elmwood. Scalise: ‘They’ve already announced a million dollars in benefits to their workers.'”

WAFB – CBS Baton Rogue:
“Steve Scalise is touting the tax reform bill in southeast Louisiana and he says there are some surprising beneficiaries, among them nearly 30 craft beer brewers. Scalise paid a visit to one of those today, the Gnarly Barley there in Hammond, Louisiana where owners Zac and Cari Caramonta are planning to put the tax savings back into their business, and their ten employees. Zac: ‘It will cover the cost of health insurance for our people, but it will also have enough left over to allow us to buy a couple tanks or so and actually expand.’ Scalise also says the tax reform bill will allow victims of the 2016 floods to deduct their expenses from their taxes; that is something near and dear to thousands of people there in the Hammond area.”

WVLA – NBC Baton Rogue:
“Scalise: ‘I was able to start working in the hospital on putting a budget together and building the coalition we needed and talked to the President. The President actually called a lot while I was in the hospital. I’d get these random phone calls, and we’d talk about some of the things that were coming up, and we talked about the desire to get the economy moving again, to create jobs again, and we knew the best way to do that was through tax reform.'”

The Advocate (New Orleans/Baton Rogue):
“Scalise said his work on the tax overhaul that passed in December began in the hospital room, where he worked on passing a budget that would allow for the tax bill. He argued the bill should lower tax rates for all residents and make businesses more competitive…Scalise cited Gnarly Barley Brewing in Hammond, which he visited prior to the luncheon, as an early example of the tax bill’s successes. 

“Brewery owner Zac Caramonta told the Advocate in an interview later that the bill is a win for his business because of a narrow provision that cuts in half the federal excise tax on each barrel of beer small brewers produce. He said the tax cut is making it possible for him to give his ten employees health insurance, a decision he was wavering on in advance of the bill’s passage due to cost. He said he plans to invest any additional savings into making more beer, which could ultimately lead to more hiring.”

Scalise’s tour today follows the news that over 100 other companies nationwide have been able to increase wages, bonuses, hiring, and investments as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, less than two weeks after being signed into law.