[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 172 (Tuesday, December 21, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2211]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 TAX RELIEF, UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE REAUTHORIZATION, AND JOB CREATION 
                              ACT OF 2010

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. WALLY HERGER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, December 16, 2010

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 4853) to 
     amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to extend the funding 
     and expenditure authority of the Airport and Airway Trust 
     Fund, to amend title 49, United States Code, to extend 
     authorizations for the airport improvement program, and for 
     other purposes:

  Mr. HERGER. Mr. Chair, Title VII of this legislation provides for the 
extension of a number of tax provisions that expired at the end of 
2009, or were set to expire at the end of 2010. I understand an effort 
was made to limit this title to what are known as the ``traditional'' 
tax extenders, with the general test being whether or not an expiring 
provision had been extended in the past. As a result of this decision, 
several provisions that expired for the first time at the end of 2009, 
and that had been included in previous drafts of tax extenders 
legislation, are not extended in this bill. One of these, the Section 
45 production tax credit for electricity produced at open-loop biomass 
facilities placed in service before October 22, 2004, is important to a 
number of energy producers in the district I represent. Under current 
law, these facilities were permitted to claim the production tax credit 
for 5 years, ending in 2009. Previous tax extension proposals included 
a 2-year extension of this credit period. As a matter of simple 
fairness, I believe it is only right that these biomass producers 
should be able to claim the production tax credit for the same 10-year 
period afforded to the other renewable electricity producers covered 
under Section 45.
  It is my understanding that no judgment was made on the policy merits 
of individual expiring tax provisions, and therefore no negative 
inference should be drawn against provisions that are not included in 
this legislation simply because they had not been extended in the past. 
I look forward to working with other members of the Ways and Means 
Committee in the 112th Congress to review these provisions and 
determine which ones are worthy of extension.

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