[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 4]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 5813-5814]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                INTRODUCTION OF BROWNFIELDS CLEAN-UP ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. WILLIAM J. COYNE

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, April 4, 2001

  Mr. COYNE. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing legislation that would 
make the tax incentive for cleaning up and redeveloping brownfields 
permanent. Mr. Weller, who has a long history of involvement on this 
issue, has cosponsored this important legislation.
  There are half a million ``brownfield'' sites around the country--old 
polluted industrial sites that continue to sit vacant because 
businesses do not want to deal with the environmental hazards that may 
exist on those sites.
  All across the country, potentially productive pieces of real estate 
lie vacant because businesses are concerned about the cost of cleaning 
up after the industries that used to operate mills and factories on 
those sites.
  If we want to bring jobs and tax revenues back to those sites, we 
have to create an

[[Page 5814]]

even playing field for businesses making decisions about where to 
locate their new facilities.
  I worked with other Representatives and Senators to provide federal 
tax support for cleaning up and re-using brownfield sites. In 1997, we 
succeeded in adding a provision to the federal tax code which allowed 
taxpayers to expense the costs of environmental remediation of 
brownfield sites in certain economically distressed areas. Last year, I 
worked successfully with Congressman Weller and several colleagues to 
extend the provision, which was scheduled to sunset at the end of 2000, 
and to apply it to brownfield sites anywhere in the country.
  I believe that one additional change should be made to the 
brownfields tax provision. I think that Congress should make the 
brownfields provision a permanent part of the federal tax code. 
Consequently, I have introduced legislation today to make the 
brownfields expensing provision permanent. I urge my colleagues to join 
me in supporting this legislation.

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