[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2289 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2289

  To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to treat spaceports like 
             airports under the exempt facility bond rules.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 18, 1999

Mr. Weldon of Florida (for himself and Mr. Davis of Florida) introduced 
  the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and 
                                 Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to treat spaceports like 
             airports under the exempt facility bond rules.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Spaceport Investment Act''.

SEC. 2. SPACEPORTS TREATED LIKE AIRPORTS UNDER EXEMPT FACILITY BOND 
              RULES.

    (a) In General.--Paragraph (1) of section 142(a) of the Internal 
Revenue Code of 1986 (relating to exempt facility bond) is amended to 
read as follows:
            ``(1) airports and spaceports,''.
    (b) Treatment of Ground Leases.--Paragraph (1) of section 142(b) of 
the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (relating to certain facilities must 
be governmentally owned) is amended by adding at the end the following 
new subparagraph:
                    ``(C) Special rule for spaceport ground leases.--
                For purposes of subparagraph (A), spaceport property 
                which is located on land owned by the United States and 
                which is used by a governmental unit pursuant to a 
                lease (as defined in section 168(h)(7)) from the United 
                States shall be treated as owned by such unit if--
                            ``(i) the lease term (within the meaning of 
                        section 168(i)(3)) is at least 15 years, and
                            ``(ii) such unit would be treated as owning 
                        such property if such lease term were equal to 
                        the useful life of such property.''.
    (c) Bond May Be Federally Guaranteed.--Paragraph (3) of section 
149(b) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (relating to exceptions) is 
amended by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
                    ``(E) Exception for spaceports.--Paragraph (1) 
                shall not apply to any exempt facility bond issued as 
                part of an issue described in paragraph (1) of section 
                142(a) to provide a spaceport in situations where--
                            ``(i) the guarantee of the United States 
                        (or an agency or instrumentality thereof) is 
                        the result of payment of rent, user fees, or 
                        other charges by the United States (or any 
                        agency or instrumentality thereof), and
                            ``(ii) the payment of the rent, user fees, 
                        or other charges is for, and conditioned upon, 
                        the use of the spaceport by the United States 
                        (or any agency or instrumentality thereof).''.
    (d) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall 
apply to obligations issued after the date of the enactment of this 
Act.
                                 <all>