WASHINGTON, DC—Congress is on a roll, at least as far as the commercial real estate industry is concerned. Earlier this week the House of Representatives introduced a bill that would allow states to collect taxes from online retailers –- a measure very dear to the hearts of the brick-and-mortar retail industry. (Not so much the industrial sector, though, which has been the beneficiary of the increased e-commerce flows, but that sector is flourishing for many reasons and is not likely to be too much affected).

Then, earlier this month Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and ranking member Senator Patrick Leahy introduced bipartisan legislation to reauthorize and reform the EB-5 Regional Center program. The measure may not check off every box for the CRE community, but then again, it is still early in the process.

Last month Congress also took off the table the source of perennial worry for the industry: carried interest, as in, there won't be any action on the subject until 2017. So said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis. "That is on the individual side of the code, so it's not something that we're looking at right now," he said.