[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 89 (Monday, June 17, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H6419-H6420]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          TAXES ON TRAVEL AND TOURISM SHOULD NOT BE INCREASED

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Goss). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Roth] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. ROTH. Mr. Speaker, my message today is do not increase taxes on 
travel and tourism. Travel and tourism is now the second largest 
industry in America. It employs more people than any other industry in 
America, and is quickly becoming the largest industry in America and 
also the largest industry worldwide.
  Several weeks ago President Clinton unveiled a new tax plan. This tax 
plan was a tax credit to be made available to students, college 
students for a 2-year period. That seems like a good idea. But who does 
the President want to pick up this tab?
  The President has singled out the people who are already paying a 
stiff and heavy tax. The President has again targeted travel and 
tourism, people who are so busy at home working, they do not have time 
to come to Congress to watch all the tax bills that Congress is 
considering; basically middle-class people who are working hard to pay 
their taxes, raise their families.
  These are the people that are being targeted again. An estimated 50 
million people will be targeted under this new tax. Even if the idea is 
just an election-year ploy, a tax increase on travelers is the wrong 
step for us to take at this time.
  First, travel and tourism brings in huge revenues into every single 
congressional district in America.
  This new tax would also penalize American companies who are seeking 
new opportunities. Even if these businesses fail to find new customers, 
they still have to pay the tax.
  Finally, a small segment of the population is being singled out to 
pay an additional tax.
  Why would the President want to target travel and tourism? In 
economic terms, the industry already makes a huge contribution. Travel 
and tourism is the second largest industry, employing some 14 million 
American workers.
  In 1995, 45 million international visitors came to the United States 
and they spent $78 billion here. One of the reasons we had an over 18 
percent drop, 18.6, to be exact, in our trade deficit in the month of 
April was because of foreign visitors. When people come here to the 
United States and buy products, it is the same as if we take those 
products, send them overseas and sell them overseas. Tourism is our 
leading export and it creates a $20 billion trade surplus.
  The industry is also responsible for some $58 billion in taxes. It 
does not even include the user fees charged directly to travelers. 
Because of this industry, every American household pays some $652 less 
in taxes. Let me repeat that. Because of the travel and tourism 
industry, the average American household last year paid $652 less in 
taxes than they would have had to pay had it not been for the travel 
and tourism industry. Clearly travel and tourism is already paying its 
fair share.
  If we do not suffocate the industry with new tax burdens, its future 
will be even brighter. By 2006 employment in the industry will increase 
some 50 percent. That means that in the next decade, in the next 10 
years, the people that we have employed in travel and tourism, 14 
million, will again be half as many, will be to 21 million people if we 
do not suffocate this industry.
  Over the next 10 years, travel and tourism is expected to generate 
almost $230 billion in new tax revenues. That is more than a 31 percent 
increase in tax revenues over the next 10 years.
  Mr. Speaker, the President want us to make a choice, but basically we 
should not have to choose between education and the tourism industry. 
Both

[[Page H6420]]

can prosper. But helping travel and tourism will create jobs and 
increase tax revenue. That means more money for education. Or we can 
treat travel and tourism like a cash cow and try to extract every cent 
that the Congress can out of this industry. That price will be high.
  Last October President Clinton presided over the White House 
Conference on Travel and Tourism here in Washington, DC. He made a very 
fine speech. At the conference the President praised the industry and 
its achievements. He pledged to work with the industry to increase 
tourism in the United States.
  To put on an additional tax, this is not the kind of help that the 
travel and tourism industry was looking for. This is not the kind of 
help that the people who run our restaurants, who run our various shops 
throughout the country, this is not the kind of help they were looking 
for.
  Travel and tourism is under attack again. Instead of delivering the 
help, the President has promised to send in the IRS. Mr. Speaker, it is 
the wrong approach to take.

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