Tax Relief And Health Care Act of 2006
TAX RELIEF AND HEALTH CARE ACT OF 2006 -- (House of Representatives - December 08, 2006)
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Ms. HART. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman not only for yielding but especially for his 6 years of incredible service as chairman and his other years of service on the Ways and Means Committee. I have not in my 16 years as a legislator seen anybody who is so capable of developing great policy which certainly has produced an incredible return for this country.
Following with that, this legislation carries a number of important tax provisions and extensions of some of those great policies that have really helped the economy to grow in this country. With today's announcement of an additional 132,000 new jobs created this month, this adds to the 5.7 million jobs that our pro-growth tax policies have created since the year 2003.
These provisions are also important to the economy in my home area, especially in western Pennsylvania, where we have seen our unemployment rate drop to about 5 percent over the last 3 years from upwards of 7-plus percent.
Part of what is continuing to help development and job growth in my area are some of the incentives to redevelop brownfields; brownfields, those abandoned industrial sites that are very difficult to find the capital to clean up. We are extending the incentive to clean up brownfields. This is so hugely important to an area like mine where there are so many industrial sites that need to be redeveloped but also the expansion of that credit to areas that have some petroleum contamination, which will also help us clean up the smaller sites such as old abandoned gas stations. Extremely important to the communities I represent.
Also the green building incentives. These tax credits for the construction repairs for energy-efficient homes and commercial buildings are extremely important. My home area is home to development of such products. My area is home to a significant amount of design of green buildings and also development of such buildings. We have had a great spurt in that growth and are headquarters to the Green Building Alliance. That is certainly going to help our region.
But, finally, the issue of health care and health coverage is one that we have great strides in the last few years to improve for Americans. The other side can say what they want about HSAs, and I hear a lot of silliness in the characterization of HSAs from the other side of the aisle. There are more than 3.2 million enrollees in these health savings accounts, an alternative health coverage in this country. More than 30 percent of those individuals were previously uninsured. And I am going to restate that. More than 30 percent of people who put HSAs were previously uninsured. This alternative health coverage has provided so many opportunities for families who find it difficult to afford traditional health coverage. The changes that we include in this legislation will provide even more opportunity for more families to have very good flexible health coverage.
I urge my colleagues to support these changes. They are vitally important.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
http://thomas.loc.gov/