[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 8473-8474]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               EXPIRE ACT

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I take this time to urge my colleagues to 
find a way to proceed with the EXPIRE Act that Senator Wyden and 
Senator Hatch worked on.
  I am proud to be a member of the Senate Finance Committee, where this 
legislation was passed by a unanimous vote. We had an extensive markup 
where members offered numerous amendments.
  This deals with expiring tax provisions, and if we don't take action, 
we will find that those who depend upon this tax policy remaining in 
effect--such as small business owners, students, people who use certain 
benefits, and some of our energy provisions--will find that policy 
expires at the end of the year. If that happens, what happens, quite 
frankly, is that--it has already expired in some provisions, and if we 
don't extend it, there will be continued uncertainty in our Tax Code.
  It also means that if we don't pass this bill, it effectively raises 
taxes on a large number of Americans. So it will affect those who ride 
our transit systems. It is already affecting those who use transit 
systems. It is already having an impact because we haven't taken timely 
action. We can't wait any longer on the passage of this bill.
  I would like to take this time to express my strong support for 
giving a fair shot to all Americans who depend upon a stable tax policy 
and are finding that our inactions are causing more uncertainty. It 
affects job creation in our communities. Let me give a few examples.
  Small businesses depend upon the passage of this bill. Why do I say 
that? The research and development tax credit is very much at stake. 
Small businesses depend upon the help in the Tax Code to take risks, to 
invest in new innovation. More innovation occurs through small 
businesses than large businesses. More jobs are created through small 
businesses than large businesses. They need a tax code that is friendly 
for small business owners to accumulate capital, to take risk, and to 
develop the next cure for a dread disease, the next technology that 
will help us deal with cyber security, and the list goes on and on. But 
without the extension of the research and development tax credit, small 
businesses particularly are put at a tremendous disadvantage.
  We have the expensing provision, which is a very popular provision, 
which allows small business owners to be able to take off immediately 
the cost of their investments in their company. It is bipartisan. We 
have always thought of that as a good idea.
  If you are a small business owner and you are trying to plan as to 
your next investment but you don't know what the tax policy is going to 
be, you are going to withhold. You are not going to make those plans to 
put in that new piece of equipment that perhaps expands capacity or 
makes you more efficient so you hire more people, sell more product, 
and create more jobs. If you don't have the certainty in the Tax Code, 
you put off that decision, delaying the acquisition. Then maybe when 
you get back to it, times are different and maybe it is more 
challenging and you never go forward with that expansion. Those jobs 
are lost forever.
  Literally, the passage of this bill helps small business owners to be 
able to make decisions to expand opportunity and create more jobs. That 
is at jeopardy if we do not move this bill forward.
  One of the provisions that I have worked on with other Members in the 
Senate is the S corporation. S corporations are preferred by small 
companies because it allows them to pass through their income and 
expenses as if they are an individual taxpayer, avoiding the double 
taxation of a C corporation. Well, there have been changes over time on 
how businesses operate, and we need to reform the S corporation 
provisions so that they are friendlier toward small businesses and give 
them more flexibility on the use of this structure.
  These are the provisions we want incorporated into the EXPIRE Act.
  Let me mention one other provision that I think is very important in 
New Jersey, Maryland, and in all of our States. We have yet to recover 
fully from the housing crisis. We still have too many people in 
Maryland and--I am sure the Presiding Officer would agree--in New 
Jersey who are in danger of losing their homes through foreclosure. We 
still have a disconnect between many of the balances that are on 
mortgages and the value of the homes. So it is in everyone's interest 
to readjust the numbers so that it works; the person can afford to stay 
in the house. It makes sense economically, it is less costly to the 
mortgage holder, and it is certainly better for our community and 
certainly better for the homeowner to be able to maintain their house. 
So we restructure the loan.
  We have had a policy in place that said restructuring those loans 
with loan forgiveness does not trigger a taxable event. That makes 
sense. Everybody agrees with that. We have to extend that policy 
because it is still needed today. We still need to make that connection 
between homeowners and the mortgage holders to adjust mortgages where 
it is appropriate to avoid foreclosure, to keep neighborhoods more 
stable, to help individual families and, by the way, it will also help 
the banking institutions because they will lose less money if they have 
a person paying their mortgage on time. That policy will be at stake if 
we do not pass the EXPIRE Act.
  Another issue I have been working on personally--and I know this one 
will be very important to the Presiding Officer--is the transit 
benefit, the parity provision. We had a policy in place that provided 
parity between those who use transit to get to work and those who are 
provided parking spaces, and that parity expired. So we need to extend 
that provision so those who help us--help our energy policy in this 
country by using transit rather than driving a car, help those who 
drive cars by having fewer cars on the road so that they can get into 
work a little easier, and help our environment by taking cars off the 
road--receive a comparable tax break as those who drive their cars to 
work. That is another provision that is critically important in the 
EXPIRE

[[Page 8474]]

Act and another reason we have to get it done.
  The low-income housing tax credit--we have worked on this, and it is 
the most important tool we have for affordable housing in this country 
today. It is the No. 1 tool today. Senator Cantwell and others have 
worked together to try to make it more effective with certain floors to 
guarantee a certain amount of help to different communities. We extend 
that policy in the EXPIRE Act so that we again are able to maintain the 
existing tools of today to help provide affordable housing by 
partnerships with the private sector. This is jobs. This is the private 
sector being incentivized to construct affordable housing in the 
community, privately owned, with the government as a partner. It is 
more cost-effective to the taxpayer and provides a greater stock of 
affordable housing. That policy will be in jeopardy if we cannot pass 
the underlying bill.
  A section I have worked on with many of my colleagues is the 
extension of 179D, which deals with energy efficiency. We all talk 
about incentives so that when you build a building, you make it energy 
efficient. It is good policy for our energy and for our environment. We 
all know it makes us less dependent upon foreign sources of energy--all 
of the above.
  This energy credit has been very, very effective in getting 
businesses and institutions to incorporate energy efficiency when they 
construct their buildings. So we want to extend that policy, 
absolutely, and I am proud of the role many of us have played in this 
area to get that extended.
  We also want to improve that, and one of the provisions that is 
improved in the underlying bill is to help nonprofits take advantage of 
the 179D credit. It makes no difference whether it is a commercial or a 
nonprofit venture; we should be friendly to all from the point of view 
of being able to make buildings more efficient. That is what is 
incorporated in the underlying bill.
  I must say I hope we will have an opportunity to offer some 
amendments, and I would hope, if we do, we can expand that to 
retrofitted buildings. We should be dealing not just with new 
construction, but we should also be dealing with older buildings from 
the point of view of giving incentives for retrofitting and saving 
energy, saving costs, making this country more efficient, creating more 
jobs and, by the way, also helping our environment. All of that can be 
done, and the EXPIRE bill helps us move forward on all those issues.
  A provision I worked on with Senator Schumer on section 181 deals 
with film expensing rules. This is very important because filmmaking, 
whether it is for the theater or for TV, is a global competition. It is 
no longer whether it is going to be done in your State or in my State; 
it is whether it is going to be done in America or in another country. 
We have certain provisions in the code that make it easier for 
companies to locate in our States.
  I am proud of the filmmaking industry in Maryland. It is very 
important to our economy, with literally hundreds of jobs dependent on 
that every week when we have new companies coming in. So extending this 
credit will help us in that regard, and that is in the underlying bill.
  A provision I worked on with Senator Portman, the work opportunity 
tax credit, is a credit we give to employers who hire very difficult-
to-hire individuals. It has been very successful in getting jobs for 
people who would otherwise be unemployed. The company takes a risk, and 
they are compensated for it because it is a more vulnerable group of 
unemployed workers.
  Senator Portman and I have introduced an amendment to expand that to 
the long-term unemployed. When an employer is looking for someone to 
hire, they do not normally go to the long-term unemployed list. This 
will allow us to deal with that. It takes the pressure off the 
unemployment insurance system, and it provides incentives for job 
growth. That is in this bill.
  I could go on and on. There are literally dozens and dozens of 
similar provisions that are extended and improved--extended and 
improved--in the underlying bill. That is what the Finance Committee 
did under the leadership of Senator Wyden and Senator Hatch. We looked 
at all these provisions and asked: Which ones should we extend and 
which should we modify?
  The next thing we want to do is to make permanent decisions. We know 
uncertainty is not healthy. We know we have to make permanent decisions 
on which credits should be there and which ones should not. We want to 
level the playing field as far as the Tax Code is concerned, but you 
can't get there unless this bill is first passed. This gives us a 2-
year window in order to pass tax reform.
  It is called EXPIRE for a reason--because we don't want to see 
temporary provisions in the Tax Code. We think we should make permanent 
judgments, and this bill gives us a chance to do that. So it will help 
us from the point of view of a more predictable tax policy. It will 
help us create jobs. There is no question about that. It does help 
small businesses. They are the ones most at risk by our failure to act. 
The uncertainty and the timing of this affects small businesses more. 
Based upon current policy, it would increase the tax burden of 
companies in this country and individuals. It is not only businesses 
but also individuals' tax burdens which will go up if we don't pass 
this bill.
  This is not the time that any of this should be done. It makes more 
sense for us to move this bill forward. So let us find a way to do it. 
I might add that, traditionally, tax bills coming out of the Finance 
Committee are not an open process for amendments. I understand that. I 
think most of my colleagues understand that. So let us use reason to 
figure out a path forward so that at the end of the day we can pass 
this most important piece of legislation and help our economy grow.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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