[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 20224-20225]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2018--MOTION TO 
                                PROCEED

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 165, 
S. 1519.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the motion.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 165, S. 1519, a bill to 
     authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2018 for military 
     activities of the Department of Defense, for military 
     construction, and for defense activities of the Department of 
     Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such 
     fiscal year, and for other purposes.


                         Tax Cuts and Jobs Bill

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, Congress is standing at the doorstep of 
a historic opportunity. Today the House will vote on the conference 
report on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the most significant overhaul of 
our Nation's Tax Code in more than 30 years. This major tax reform 
legislation will provide much needed relief to middle-class families 
and small businesses and will set America on a trajectory toward more 
opportunity and greater prosperity.
  After the House votes this afternoon, the Senate will begin debate 
and will proceed to a vote on passage later this evening. The final 
text of this bill is the product of extensive open debate. It is a 
result of dozens of hearings on tax reform in recent years and an open 
amendment process. Then, the House and the Senate joined together in a 
conference committee that carefully reconciled the two Chambers' bills.
  Now the time has come to vote. When Senators vote for the Tax Cuts 
and Jobs Act, they will be voting for a bill that substantially cuts 
taxes for middle-class families. By reducing rates, it will let working 
Americans keep more of their paychecks and send less of their hard-
earned money to Washington.
  In addition to lower rates, middle-class families will benefit from a 
standard deduction that is almost double its present level and from a 
doubling of the child tax credit. They will benefit from the ability to 
deduct more of their medical expenses, increasing their tax savings 
during difficult times.
  Despite what opponents of the bill have claimed, the Tax Cuts and 
Jobs Act achieves all this while preserving charitable deductions and 
the adoption tax credit. It protects the exemption for university 
tuition benefits. A mortgage interest deduction remains, as does a 
deduction for State and local taxes.
  The result is a comprehensive tax reform bill that does what we set 
out to do: take money out of Washington's pocket and put it back into 
the pockets of middle-class Americans who earned it. Consider a typical 
family of four who earns the median family income. A vote for the 
conference report is a vote to cut their tax bill by more than $2,000 
next year.
  After a disappointing decade of stagnant wages and shrinking 
opportunity under the Obama administration, middle-class families are 
counting on Congress to keep our promise and give them that much needed 
relief.
  In addition to directly cutting taxes for American families, this 
landmark bill will also set America on a trajectory toward higher wages 
and better job opportunities by making our country a better place to do 
business. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act contains a number of provisions 
that will make it easier to run and grow a small business, to create 
jobs, and to invest right here in the United States.
  The bill creates new tax relief for Main Street businesses. It makes 
it easier for American companies to bring their earnings back home 
instead of parking that money elsewhere. It eliminates incentives to 
shift jobs and manufacturing overseas and replaces them with new 
incentives to invest and expand operations here at home.
  To make America more competitive in the global economy, the Tax Cuts 
and Jobs Act cuts our corporate tax rate from 35 percent--one of the 
highest rates in the developed world--to 21 percent. This is good news 
for workers. As more than 100 economists agreed in a recent open 
letter, ``the question isn't whether American workers are hurt by our 
country's corporate tax rate--it's how badly.''
  Another expert put it this way in a recent op-ed: It is ``the 
consensus view of professional economists'' that ``lowering corporate 
income taxes would increase the wages of workers.'' Perhaps that is why 
reforming the corporate tax rate used to be a bipartisan goal. During 
the previous administration, prominent Democrats said they supported 
bringing our rate in line with our competitors overseas.
  There may be a new occupant of the White House, but the need for 
reform has not changed. I hope our colleagues on both sides of the 
aisle will support this pro-growth, pro-worker policy.
  It is no wonder that job creators are enthusiastic about what they 
will be able to accomplish when tax reform becomes law. I recently 
received a letter from the chief operating officer of a construction 
equipment dealer in my hometown of Louisville. This is a direct quote: 
``We'll hire more employees and plan investments in our company that we 
weren't considering prior to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.''
  This bill will also help Americans by repealing a punitive tax at the 
very heart of ObamaCare. For low- and middle-income families who are 
suffering under the individual mandate tax--including many in my home 
State of Kentucky--repeal means relief. If the health insurance plans 
available under

[[Page 20225]]

ObamaCare are not affordable or not desirable, the blame lies with that 
failing law, not with Americans who are already struggling to make ends 
meet. It is unfair and illogical to penalize them further because 
ObamaCare is failing to meet their needs. By erasing this individual 
mandate tax, we will give Americans both tax relief and healthcare 
flexibility--two things that ObamaCare failed to provide.
  There is one more element of this bill that deserves special 
attention. It provides the Nation, and particularly the people of 
Alaska, with a tremendous opportunity to develop the State's bountiful 
natural resources. In 1980 Congress set aside a particular 
nonwilderness area within Alaska's National Wildlife Refuge for 
potential development of its oil and gas resources. This bill is our 
chance to finally make good on that promise, enhancing our country's 
energy security and creating good-paying jobs in the process.
  Unlocking the resources of this area will provide a boon to Alaska's 
economy, but more broadly, it will also advance America's standing as 
an energy superpower, helping to cut Americans' energy costs and 
strengthening our national security.
  For too long, special interests have stood in the way of responsible 
development. The people of Alaska have shown time and again that 
resource development can go hand in hand with environmental protection, 
and surface development will be limited to just one ten-thousandth of 
the total land in the reserve. It is long past time to finish what 
Congress started almost 40 years ago and to begin reaping the benefits 
of responsible development.
  The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act will deliver historic tax relief to 
American families. It will help put our country on a trajectory toward 
more innovation and better paying jobs. It will repeal an unfair tax at 
the center of ObamaCare and will help America achieve greater energy 
security.
  So this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity. I want to commend the 
work of Chairman Hatch, Chairman Enzi, and Chairman Murkowski to bring 
it within reach. I urge all of our colleagues to join me in voting to 
approve the conference report and complete this victory for the 
American people.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________