[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 32 (Monday, March 12, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2164-S2165]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. DOMENICI (for himself, Mr. Bingaman, Mr. Frist, Mr. 
        Lieberman, Ms. Snowe, Mr. Rockefeller, Mr. Kennedy, and Mr. 
        Bayh):
  S. 515. A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to 
establish a permanent tax incentive for research and development, and 
for other purposes; to the Committee on Finance.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, today I am joining my co-sponsors, 
Senators Bingaman, Frist, Lieberman, Snowe, Kennedy and Bayh in 
introducing the ``Private Sector Research and Development Investment 
Act of 2001'' This bill makes the Research Tax Credit permanent and 
significantly improves the structure of the Credit.
  I am very pleased that President Bush has already endorsed a 
permanent Credit in his Agenda for Tax Relief. In the discussion of his 
tax package, President Bush notes that:

       The credit encourages the technological developments that 
     are an important component of economic growth. . . . This 
     should help spur the sustained, long-term investment in R&D 
     that America needs to develop the next generation of critical 
     technologies.

  I wholeheartedly agree.
  I am also pleased to join with Senator Hatch and many cosponsors in 
his bill to permanently extend the research credit and to increase the 
rates of the alternative incremental credit.
  Today I want to suggest that we go a little further than both of 
these proposals in revising the Research Tax Credit. We should use the 
enthusiasm toward making the credit permanent to also improve it. In 
the process, we can significantly help the innovation process in our 
nation at the same time that we strengthen our universities and small 
businesses.
  Advanced technologies drive a significant part of our nation's 
economic strength. Our economy and our standard of living depend on a 
constant influx of new technologies, processes, and products from our 
industries. Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan has frequently 
reinforced the critical dependence between advanced technology and our 
economic strength.
  Many countries provide labor at lower costs than the United States. 
Thus, as any new product matures, competitors using overseas labor 
frequently find ways to undercut our production costs. We maintain our 
economic strength only by constantly improving our products through 
innovation. Maintaining and improving our national ability to innovate 
is critically important to the nation.
  Today, we are introducing legislation to improve the Research Tax 
Credit. The single most important change in our bill is to make the 
Credit permanent, as the President proposes. But other parts of the 
Credit would benefit from improvements.
  For example, the current Credit references a company's research in 
1984-88. That leads to situations where two companies doing the same 
research today receive different credits, depending on what they did in 
1984.
  As another example, now there is a ``Basic Research Credit'' allowed, 
but rarely used because of the way it is written. We could be using 
this section to encourage unversity research, as I have done in this 
bill. We also provide incentives for research to be done with research 
consortia.
  In summary, this bill incorporates the improvements suggested by the 
President and in other current bills, and it goes further to strengthen 
the Credit.
  With this new bill, we will significantly strengthen incentives for 
private companies to undertake research that leads to new processes, 
new services, and new products. The result will be stronger companies 
that are better positioned for global competition. Those stronger 
companies will hire more people at higher salaries with real benefits 
to our national economy and workforce.
  Madam President, I will speak on the subject of the credit that 
American businesses get for research which is part of the Tax Code. I 
hope the distinguished chairman of the Finance Committee is aware this 
year the research tax credit has different

[[Page S2165]]

support this year because the President of the United States has asked 
we make permanent this very important part of our Tax Code that gives 
American companies, large and small, an opportunity to take part of 
their research and apply for a research tax credit.
  I am introducing a bill today that improves the tax credit. The 
President asked us to extend it so businesses will know where they are, 
which has been your position for years. I am sure the Senator will do 
that. Today I introduce a bill for 8 Senators on both sides of the 
aisle. We think it has to be improved in two or three ways. We want to 
make sure in America today that research by businesses, being done with 
universities, with laboratories, with a consortia of two or three 
companies and universities, two or three companies and laboratories, we 
want to make sure that research fits the definition of a research tax 
credit. That is what the big change has been.
  Companies are not doing everything in house. They are doing it with 
universities, with other companies. They do not all get the tax credit, 
although it is part of the American marketplace, unless we modify the 
current tax credit. This bill we introduce does that and six or seven 
other things to make it more functional. We will be calling it to the 
attention of your staff as a separate item. Although we support Senator 
Hatch's bill that says continue it, make it permanent, we think it 
ought to be improved to fit what is truly the way American businesses 
are doing business today in the marketplace of science.
  I ask the bill for myself, Senator Bingaman, and seven other Senators 
be sent to the desk and appropriately referred.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The bill will be received and referred.

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