[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15400-15401]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             HIGHLIGHTS OF THE UNIFIED TAX REFORM FRAMEWORK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from

[[Page 15401]]

North Carolina (Ms. Foxx) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I would like to share some information about 
the Unified Tax Reform Framework that was released last week by 
Republicans in the House of Representatives.
  I think it is important that, with all of the sad news coming out 
this week in the country, particularly in Puerto Rico and Las Vegas, we 
do share with the American people some information that will be so 
important to them long term and will help our economy get a good jump 
start.
  Incidentally, last quarter, our economy grew at 3.1 percent, but very 
few people have heard about that, and it is important that we point 
that out.
  Mr. Speaker, the material provided by the Ways and Means Committee is 
extraordinarily valuable, and I also would encourage people to go on 
the Ways and Means' website and on my website and on individual 
websites of Members to gain more information about this framework.
  First, it lowers the rates for individuals and families. The 
framework shrinks the current seven tax brackets into three: 12 
percent, 25 percent, and 35 percent. And actually, Mr. Speaker, many 
more Americans will pay no taxes as a result of the tax reform, because 
we are going to double the standard deduction and enhance the child tax 
credit.

                              {time}  1100

  The framework roughly doubles the standard deduction so that typical 
middle class families will keep more of their paycheck. It also 
significantly increases the child tax credit. It eliminates loopholes 
for the wealthy and protects bedrock provisions for the middle class. 
It repeals the death tax and alternative minimum tax.
  Mr. Speaker, dying should not be a taxable event. It is important 
that we not tax people, particularly farmers and small businesses, at 
the death of a businessowner or farmowner.
  It creates a new lower tax rate structure for small businesses. It 
will help to create jobs and promote competitiveness by lowering the 
corporate tax rate. So that Americans can compete on a level playing 
field, the framework reduces the corporate tax rate to 20 percent, 
below the 22.5 percent average of the industrialized world.
  It will boost the economy by allowing for expensing of capital 
investments. The framework allows, for at least 5 years, businesses to 
immediately write off or expense the cost of new investments, giving a 
much-needed lift to the economy.
  It moves to an American model for competitiveness. The framework ends 
the perverse incentives to offshore jobs and keep foreign profits 
overseas. It levels the playing field for American companies and 
workers by allowing the profits achieved overseas to come back by 
imposing a one-time low tax rate on wealth that is already accumulated 
overseas so there is no tax incentive to keep the money offshore.
  Mr. Speaker, we need to get our economy booming again to create jobs 
and to make our country much greater than it is today. I endorse this 
framework put out by the Ways and Means Committee and look forward to 
the work that is going to be done by the committee as it refines the 
framework and brings forth a bill for us to vote on.

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