[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 142 (Tuesday, September 5, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1158-E1159]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF A BILL TO AMEND THE INTERNAL REVENUE CODE OF 1986 TO 
       DESIGNATE THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA AS AN EMPOWERMENT ZONE

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, September 5, 2017

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce a bill to instruct 
the Secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban 
Development to deem areas within the District of Columbia as 
empowerment zones. This bill would effectively reauthorize the tax 
incentives for business investment in the District, which expired in 
2011, yet are timelier than ever today. These were the only tax 
incentives for a big city that were not extended, even though they were 
initially created by Republicans, with a few Democrats. The wisdom of 
these bipartisan, modest, targeted tax incentives has been amply and 
visibly demonstrated in the economic resurgence in many parts of the 
nation's capital. However, the D.C. tax incentives were cut off before 
the poorest neighborhoods were ready to make use of them.
  Congress has recognized that the benefits of incentives for 
investment in economically

[[Page E1159]]

distressed communities outweigh their costs as it has continually 
extended the national empowerment zone program. The positive effects of 
the D.C. tax incentives are apparent throughout the city. Among the 
most visible are the vibrant area around the Verizon Center, which is 
now surrounded by offices, restaurants and nightlife, and the Penn 
Quarter neighborhood, which had limited residential, commercial, and 
retail spaces and is now a popular mixed-use neighborhood. Before the 
business tax incentives, the city found it difficult to retain, much 
less attract, businesses. However, one of the business tax incentives 
enabled the city government to issue more than $155 million in tax-
exempt bonds on behalf of for-profit and non-profit entities for 
capital projects.
  The federal government's decision to build facilities in the 
District's poorest ward, Ward 8, lays the groundwork for revitalization 
there. The new headquarters for the U.S. Coast Guard is now open in 
Southeast D.C. in the city's lowest income ward, the first in a complex 
of buildings Congress has authorized for the federally-owned West 
Campus of the St. Elizabeths Hospital. The tax incentives, particularly 
in areas where the federal government is expanding, as it did in NoMa, 
have demonstrated that they can revitalize such neighborhoods. 
Withdrawing the D.C. incentives, particularly after they had proven to 
be effective in other areas of the city, left the nation's capital with 
essentially half of a revival, and was tragically timed just as the 
lower-income parts of the District, which need the incentives most, are 
ready for redevelopment.
  Except for having no representation in the Senate, there is no good 
reason why the D.C. tax incentives were not extended like those of 
similar cities. Like the fiscal health of many other cities, the 
District's overall fiscal health has improved since the tax incentives 
were established in 1997, but not in the poorest wards and in 
neighborhood pockets elsewhere. The incentives are particularly 
indispensable for ensuring that lower-income areas of the city are part 
of the city's economic progress. It would be tragic to continue to 
single out the nation's capital as the only empowerment zone not to be 
renewed just as the eastern, low-income sections of the city are about 
to develop. As essential as the federal incentives have been, their 
costs have been de minimis compared to the measurable benefits they 
have demonstrated they can generate.
  I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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