[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18896]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              NEW ORLEANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Jefferson) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JEFFERSON. Mr. Speaker, since Hurricane Katrina, the great New 
Orleans area has been in disarray. While there have been innumerable 
promises to ensure the region's recovery, a comprehensive response here 
in Washington to the tragedy back home has not been forthcoming. The 
citizens of my great city are appreciative of the efforts that have 
been made. However, much more needs to be done at a vastly more urgent 
pace.
  It has now been 23 months since Hurricane Katrina hit and the faulty 
levees built by the Army Corps of Engineers collapsed and flooded our 
homes and businesses. The levees have still not been built back to 
acceptable standards.
  It has been 23 months since nearly half of our residents have had no 
place in which to return. It has been 23 months, and investors cannot 
properly use tax credits to bring back rental properties.
  It has been 23 months, and most small businesses are still at a 
standstill, still not back in place.
  It has been 23 months, and less than half of our doctors, health care 
providers and hospitals are back home. Katrina evacuees and survivors 
have been studied, reported upon and promised to. They now want and 
deserve real solutions. One way where we could make a significant 
impact on the growth, repair and the redevelopment of our region is 
through some tax reforms in areas related to our recovery.
  Even before Katrina, the greater New Orleans area was considered one 
of a high health care service shortage. Since Katrina, the program is 
exacerbated. Of the 669,000 residents of the greater New Orleans area, 
125,000 have no form of health insurance. The area lacks an adequate 
availability of health care providers to deal with delivery of health 
services. Furthermore, post-Katrina, the area lost 89 percent of its 
psychiatrists and mental health providers. Amando Lo of the Physicians 
Resource Group states that, ``The city's medical center is hanging on 
by a thread.''

                              {time}  2300

  One possible start towards a remedy of this problem has been offered 
by the greater New Orleans Health Service Corps. The mission of this 
program is to sustain and increase access to health care services in 
the greater New Orleans area by reducing the shortage of critical 
health care professionals through targeted recruitment and retention 
strategies. ``The program offers a variety of incentives,'' says Gayla 
Strahan, the program's coordinator.
  One specifically is school loan repayment. However, whereas similar 
programs under the Public Health Service Act are tax exempt, these are 
not. Changing this oversight has the potential to greatly effect the 
decision to come to the region. Drs. Mordaci Potash and Micheala King, 
recipients of the grant program in the New Orleans area, both say that 
receiving the grants have been incredibly helpful. However, the taxes 
to be paid on these grants are a huge burden. Indeed, the taxes they 
say that are required to be paid are so burdensome they totally 
undermine the incentive value of the grants altogether, and to such an 
extent that they are thinking of actually turning down the award and 
practicing elsewhere. Therefore, one way we can ameliorate the health 
care problems in our city and the retention and recovery of our health 
care professionals is to make these grants nontaxable.
  Housing is still a dire need in the New Orleans area. There is still 
an overall shortage of housing since Katrina. Furthermore, most housing 
that is available is unaffordable to the working class families and the 
working poor. Greg Rigamer, CEO of GCR & Associates, a group that 
studies demographics in the area and the economic conditions relating 
to it, stated that rents have risen 40 percent and the average home 
selling price has jumped 25 percent.
  Earlier this year, Milton Bailey, president of the Louisiana Housing 
Finance Authority, spoke before the Ways and Means Committee primarily 
about extending the placed in service date for low-income housing tax 
credit projects. However, there is so much more that could and needs to 
be done in this area. Bailey warns if the wording in the tax code 
relating to credit carryover in the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 does 
not get corrected, the phrasing will stymie the deployment of Go Zone 
per capita tax credits.
  A solution to that would be to rewrite or delete that section, 
section 1400(c)(1)(c) in the Internal Revenue Code. A failure to do 
this will jeopardize the entire tax credit program, and the entire 
credit ceiling in any year reduces the credit ceiling, which would 
greatly hurt the region.
  Finally, the current Louisiana Road Home program gives a financial 
incentive for residents to return to New Orleans. The grants received 
are to be used to buy or repair homes lost in the storm. However, there 
is even doubt as to whether these grants are taxable.
  Earlier this year, I introduced H.R. 1445, the Tax Free Road Home Act 
of 2007. This would amend the Internal Revenue Code to exclude from 
gross income payments to individual taxpayers from the Louisiana Road 
Home Program for rebuilding or renewing a personal residence. As with 
the Health Service Corps, we need to have these grants to be tax 
exempt. Our people have already been through enough, primarily because 
of the negligence of the Federal Government in designing and 
constructing our levee system. Requiring them now to pay taxes on 
recovery moneys is an additional burden they should not have to bear. 
It is time to get our tax policies right for the Gulf region if we 
truly want our people to return, our area to recover, and the promises 
we made to be met.

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