[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 69 (Thursday, May 8, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H3943-H3944]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          RESEARCH TAX CREDIT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, I supported the research tax credit 
legislation in the Ways and Means Committee, as I have done repeatedly 
in the past. I intend to do so on the floor as a first step in getting 
some certainty into a program that has been plagued with uncertainty 
for as long as I have been in Congress.
  The tax credit has been extended 15 times without concern about 
whether or not it is ``paid for.'' Anyone who has been in Congress for 
awhile, in essence, has already voted to make it permanent and not pay 
for it.
  Regardless of the budget rules, this is one area of investment that I 
think probably does pay for itself. It pays for itself in economic 
activity, scientific breakthroughs, and product development. It 
advances the interests of not just American companies, but of commerce 
and our overall economy.
  As a country, we are consistently underinvesting in research. There 
is no substitute for the Federal Government playing the vital role that 
it has in the past with the development of the semiconductor, the 
Internet, and the basic role that it has played in dealing with health 
and medical research.
  I don't like how this legislation has been handled. This is an issue 
that should have been characterized by bipartisanship, by working 
together to make the research tax credit more effective. We could 
consider making it refundable to help smaller emerging businesses. We 
could take a hard look at constructive criticisms that have raised 
questions about how we could make it work better. That should be our 
job.
  Luckily, this is the start, not the end, of the process. There will 
be more work that will be done with our friends in the Senate under the 
leadership of Senator Wyden and Senator Hatch on the Senate Finance 
Committee, who have already started down this path.
  What is very likely to emerge in the short term will not be a 
permanent but rather a 1- or 2-year extension. It is progress to get it 
reenacted and to signal broad support for its permanence and 
refinement.
  All of the controversy surrounding tax reform underscores the 
fundamental challenge.
  The inability of the Republican leadership to embrace the work 
product of Chairman Camp is illustrative. He worked diligently and 
produced a somewhat simplified code with a lowered tax rate and without 
adding to the deficit, which is essentially what Republican leadership 
Presidential ticket claimed they wanted.
  Yet my Republican friends are unable to accept the necessary 
reductions in other tax benefits that come with the package. But there 
is bipartisan reluctance in this regard.
  It illustrates that we are, I think, never going to get out of this 
box until we have another source of revenue. The most promising would 
be a carbon tax, which would be broadly distributed throughout the 
economy. It should be revenue-neutral, using the revenue raised to 
modify the impacts on lower-income citizens and businesses, and using 
the rest of the proceeds to keep it revenue-neutral could help us 
simplify the Tax Code. It might be the only way to reform the Tax Code.
  Simplification costs money, which an aging and growing country needs 
to replace. The carbon tax will do that and will have the added benefit 
of providing greater simplification for energy-sensitive provisions 
and, by the way, will help us save the planet.
  The report released this week by the administration on climate 
underscores the impact that climate change and global warming is having 
now. A carbon tax is the best way to exercise our leadership to change 
that process. I have long supported a revenue-neutral carbon tax, and 
will continue to do so, as the key to long-term tax reform and 
environmental protection.
  In the meantime, I will continue to support individual tax provisions 
that are important to my community, that help our economy and protect 
and enhance the infrastructure. I only hope that we are able to make 
the transition so that we can do this in a more thoughtful and 
constructive fashion.

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