[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 56 (Friday, March 30, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E723]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF MAKING BROWNFIELDS TAX INCENTIVE PERMANENT LEGISLATION

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                           HON. JERRY WELLER

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 29, 2007

  Mr. WELLER of Illinois. Madam Speaker, Thank you for the opportunity 
to offer an introductory statement regarding legislation Congressman 
Becerra and I are introducing today making existing brownfields tax 
incentives permanent.
  As you may know, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the Government 
Accountability Office estimate that there are more than 400,000 
brownfield sites across the country. They exist in every state and in 
many of our districts, rural and urban. We have all seen them . . . 
they are abandoned gas stations and warehouses and manufacturing 
facilities that have been closed down. These sites once housed vibrant 
and productive businesses, but today are in desperate need of 
revitalization and redevelopment. Before they can be redeveloped, 
however, existing environmental contamination must be cleaned up.
  The cost of cleanup can be significant and, when this is the case, 
often stand in the way of re-development projects. In some cases, the 
clean up costs can exceed $1 million. The legislation we are 
introducing today helps make these clean ups more affordable by 
removing obstacles in the federal tax code that create obstacles to 
clean up.
  Specifically, this legislation does two things:
  Make the Internal Revenue Code Section 198 expensing provision 
permanent. This provision allows for the expensing of brownfield clean 
up costs. Currently, this provision expires at the end of 2007;
  Repeal the provision in the law that recaptures the expense deduction 
as taxable income when the property is sold.
  A recent survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors of 187 large and 
small cities found that if their existing brownfields were redeveloped, 
it could bring additional tax revenues to their cities of approximately 
$2 billion and create up to $500,000 jobs.
  The issue of brownfield cleanups has been important to me since I 
joined the Ways and Means Committee in 1996. This new legislation 
represents more than a decade of work on this issue. These final steps 
involve making the tax incentive permanent and repealing the recapture 
requirement. I look forward to working with Mr. Becerra to getting 
these final steps made into a permanent part of our tax code.

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