[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 43 (Thursday, March 18, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H1455-H1456]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          MAKING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT TAX CREDIT PERMANENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Sherman) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, this week a number of my colleagues in the 
New Democratic Coalition have come before the House to talk about a 
very important tax issue, and that is the need to make the R&D tax 
credit a permanent part of our tax law.
  I would like to join with them in urging all of our colleagues to 
support taking a credit that has been a consistent part of our tax law 
but is always designed to be eliminated and then at the last minute is 
extended, to instead make that a permanent part of our tax law.
  I have three major points, the first of which is the importance of 
research and development for all Americans. I think Americans are 
acutely aware that we live a life that is more wealthy, that we are in 
better financial position than 90 percent of the world. And most 
Americans, if asked what is the single greatest reason why Americans 
live so much better than those in Bangladesh or Honduras would say that 
it is because of our high levels of education and technology. We must 
do everything possible to advance our technology further and to advance 
the education of our workforce.

                              {time}  1800

  Perhaps the best example of the importance of research technology and 
science is illustrated by this chart which focuses on just one 
industry, an industry that barely existed a decade ago, that did not 
have a name 2 years ago, and that is the information technology 
industry. As this chart illustrates, over a third of all of the 
economic growth in this country came in that one industry, and we now 
sit at the beginning of a new century, a new century that will be, I 
think, marked as the Information Age, yet even before we begin this new 
century over a third of our economic growth is dependent upon an 
information technology industry that exists in large part because of 
the research and development conducted by American corporations.

[[Page H1456]]

  The second point I wish to make is that not everything that is good 
and desirable is necessarily worthy of a tax credit, but tax credits 
are particularly appropriate where an activity engaged in by one 
company or individual provides benefits not only for those who are 
footing the bill, but benefits to society at large. A company that does 
research and development benefits not only itself, but our entire 
society and the world as a whole. Yes, a portion of the benefits of 
that technology will be reaped by the company that conducts it for they 
will seek a patent to defend their intellectual property. But many 
advances in technology achieved by our research projects are not 
patentable, and even those that are will become owned by the people of 
the world as a whole when the patent expires.
  Furthermore, research project not only leads to a particular patent 
or a particular technology, it increases the general level of 
scientific education of those engaged in the project and increases the 
level of science in our society as a whole. Most economists would agree 
that where an activity provides such major external benefits, 
beneficial externalities to use the economics term, it is deserving of 
societal help, encouragement and, in this case, a tax credit.
  Finally, there is the issue of whether we should continue to renew 
the credit on a yearly or several-years-at-a-time basis or make it a 
permanent part of our Tax Code. Keep in mind that the purpose of this 
tax credit is to encourage companies to do more research than they 
would otherwise. As a CPA and a tax lawyer in private practice for many 
years, I was witness to the strange process by which a provision in our 
tax law leads to a change in corporate behavior. Some day sociologists 
and anthropologists will study this process. It is a process in which a 
tax expert has to explain to the others in the company what the tax law 
provision provides and what benefits would be reaped on the tax return 
from engaging in a particular project, in this case a research project.
  There are two types of research and development that are eligible for 
the credit. The first is the kind of research project that would be 
done any way. Often research is done and the company is not even aware 
of the R&D tax credit until the next March or April 15th when they 
complete their tax return. The other type of research is that research 
that is conducted because the company is counting on getting the 
credit. It is that second area where the R&D tax credit actually 
achieves its purpose.
  Yet I repeat my words. The company is counting on getting the credit. 
How can a company count on getting a tax credit for a multiyear large 
research and development project if by its very terms the R&D credit is 
supposed to expire at the end of this year or the end of next year? The 
R&D tax credit can achieve its purpose, and that purpose is to expand 
the amount of research done in our country only if companies can count 
on it.
  Now no provision of our tax law is guaranteed to be there forever. 
But certainly a provision which by its own terms is going to expire in 
a year or two is particularly ephemeral. If instead we make the R&D tax 
credit a permanent part of our laws, then companies will rely upon it, 
their R&D budgets will reflect not only the possibility that the credit 
might be there in the many years that the R&D project continues, but 
the extreme likelihood that it will continue to be there since it is a 
permanent part of our tax law.
  Mr. Speaker, I look forward especially in this year when we are 
enjoying for the first time the fruits of the fiscal discipline that 
this Congress has exercised, I look forward in this year of surplus to 
take this step of making the R&D tax credit a permanent part of our 
law.

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