[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 22 (Tuesday, February 10, 2015)]
[House]
[Page H872]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        MAKING PERMANENT THE CONSERVATION EASEMENT TAX INCENTIVE

  (Mr. COSTELLO of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. COSTELLO of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise today because this 
House has an important job to finish, one that involves providing some 
certainty for our family farmers and property owners at all income 
levels. It is the conservation easement legislation, which will make 
the incentive permanent. It was sponsored in past sessions by over 300 
Members of this House and by many Members in the Senate.
  The conservation easement incentive has enabled property owners 
across the country to voluntarily preserve their land. In some cases, 
the availability of the tax credit means the difference between keeping 
a family farm or selling it. In my time as township supervisor and as 
county commissioner in Chester County, one of my top priorities was 
preserving farmland and natural resources, but it required the 
collaboration and the financial wherewithal of the landowner. The 
conservation easement legislation that we seek to make permanent will 
enable more of that to happen.
  Organizations in my district, like the Berks County Conservancy, the 
Natural Lands Trust, the Brandywine Conservancy, and the French and 
Pickering Creeks Conservation Trust, have all been very, very helpful 
in making Berks, Chester, Lebanon, and Montgomery Counties great places 
to live and raise a family. Families cannot make long-term decisions 
with short-term extensions about what is probably their most important, 
valuable assets. So let's finish our job, Mr. Speaker, and commit to 
making this the year we make permanent the Federal conservation 
easement tax incentive.

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