The U.S. congressman who authored legislation this summer to repeal the 10 percent excise tax on indoor tanning is getting media attention for standing up for the indoor tanning market.

U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm, R-New York, says standing up for indoor tanning businesses is part of his pledge to protect small businesses and jobs.

“I made a campaign promise to help small businesses by repealing Obamacare, of which the tan tax was a part,” Grimm told the New York Daily News, which reported he was proud of his support to indoor tanning businesses.

Grimm and more than a dozen other co-sponsors introduced legislation in June calling for the repeal of the 10 percent tax on indoor tanning sunbed services — passed as part of the 2010 Health Care Reform Act. The tax went into effect July 1, 2010.

The Daily News story made an issue of a $500 political contribution from Indoor Tanning Association President Dan Humiston to Grimm soon after the bill was introduced.

“He came to our association, said he was against taxing one specific industry for a special project,” Humiston told the Daily News. “We said, ‘Great!’ – our industry was blindsided by this and didn’t know how to fight it.”

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