AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT OF 2009 -- (Senate - February 05, 2009)
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Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I rise today to speak on behalf of an amendment to the stimulus bill that Senators Kohl, Brown, Levin, Sanders, Stabenow, Whitehouse, and I are introducing. The amendment will restore funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, MEP, to the level included in the House-passed bill. It ensures that $30 million currently contained in the bill for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST, go specifically to the MEP to continue its critical operations on behalf of small and medium-sized manufacturers nationwide. This would not increase the size of the stimulus bill; rather, it would simply reallocate funding to the MEP.
If our goal in this stimulus is to create and retain jobs, then there is no better program to fund than the MEP. Administered by NIST and with centers in every State, the MEP provides our Nation's nearly 350,000 small manufacturers with services and access to resources that enhance growth, improve productivity, and expand capacity. At a time when our economy is suffering its worst downturn since the Great Depression, the MEP's work is crucial to helping those manufacturers be stronger long-term competitors both domestically and internationally. This will, in turn, allow them to create good-paying high-skill jobs.
As co-chair of the Senate Task Force on Manufacturing, I have seen firsthand the effect our country's manufacturing industry has on the vitality of our economy. By directing $30 million to the MEP, we will be sending a clear signal to small manufacturers that they will continue to play a vital role in reinvigorating our economy. I urge my colleagues to adopt this amendment.
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Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I rise to speak to an amendment to the stimulus proposal with Senator Feinstein and Senator Kerry that would increase tax incentives for energy efficiency and ensure that we invest in the area that can transform our energy policy. Given the state of our country, I believe that we must be resolute and visionary in our commitment to energy efficiency, an investment that provides both short-term benefits and long-term dividends. As a result, today I am offering an amendment that will facilitate a revolution toward energy-efficient buildings.
One inexcusable legacy of this housing crisis for our future generations will be that the vast majority of homes constructed over the last 10 years during the housing boom have been inefficient. While an inefficient vehicle purchased today may guzzle gasoline for an average of 10 years, an inefficient building will require elevated levels of energy for as long as 50 years. Therefore, whenever we create inefficient buildings, generations to come will be saddled with our wasteful energy decisions.
My amendment today would create and expand tax incentives for efficient buildings to levels that would equal the additional construction costs for the higher efficient buildings. The amendment would raise the tax credit for the construction of a new home from $2,000 to $5,000, a provision that the National Association of Home Builders estimates could provide 100,000 jobs. In fact, the association has written the Finance Committee stating that this amendment would ``provide much needed and meaningful expansions to two existing tax incentive programs that are helping to improve residential energy efficiency in both new and existing homes.''
This amendment would build on Congress's landmark energy efficiency tax credits established in the 2005 Energy Policy Act and continue to foster the burgeoning energy efficiency industry to work for homeowners who are struggling with energy bills. Specifically this amendment would provide a $500 tax credit for individuals to become professional energy auditors, experts that can reduce our country's demand for oil, reduce carbon emissions, and save our struggling families money on their energy bills. In addition, a $200 tax credit is established for homeowners to hire these professional energy auditors and analyze the deficiencies of an existing home and propose investments that will save the taxpayer money. As we move forward with dedicating significant resources to energy efficiency in this legislation it is critical that we ensure that this funding is utilized effectively by a professional energy efficiency industry, and this amendment will accomplish this critical goal.
Finally, the amendment increases the tax credit for energy efficient commercial buildings by increasing the deduction from $1.80 per square foot to $3.00 per square foot. The original version of the commercial buildings tax deduction as passed by the Senate set the deduction to $2.25 per square foot, with the critical support of the current Finance chairman and ranking member. Adjusting for inflation, this corresponds to $3.00 per square foot today with partial compliance increased to $1.00 per square foot. These changes would return the deduction to viability as it was originally designed and ensure that commercial building developers are provided an adequate incentive to pursue energy efficiency.
We must not overlook that an exacerbating factor in the collapse of our economy was our exposure to the historic price of foreign oil. With estimates that every 1 percent increase in energy prices results in a .15 percent drop in aggregate consumer spending, clearly, the United States must address this situation with boldness, clarity, and foresight and invest in energy efficiency--the low-hanging fruit of a new energy era. We must seize this historic opportunity.
Two weeks ago, a New York Times editorial pointed out that we are an extremely energy inefficient economy--the 76th best country in the world. This must change if we are to retain our leadership in this world. It is a burden to our citizens as well as our small business, and unsurprisingly, the Chamber of Commerce wrote to Congress on January 14 indicating that energy efficiency should be our first priority. We have an opportunity to do that today, and I believe it is a serious absence in this recovery package.
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Mr. President, I rise to speak to an amendment with Senators Feinstein, Bingaman, and Kerry to improve upon the efficiency standards of residential tax credits. As a leader on energy efficiency tax credits, I am encouraged to see roughly $4.3 billion in incentives for the residential home energy efficient purchases through the 25C tax credit. As a longtime leader on efficiency, and as the one who spearheaded this landmark energy efficiency tax credits with Senator Feinstein, I have strong concerns about the stimulus proposal, which must be overhauled to ensure that only the most efficient products qualify for this tax credit.
Of primary concern, the mark extends the 25C tax credit for residential property for an additional year through end of 2010 and raises the individual cap from $500 to $1500. However, the mark critically fails to overhaul the tax credits to reflect technological developments that have occurred since we passed this into law four years ago. Quite simply, during this period, products have become more energy efficient, yet the proposal fails to reflect this indisputable point. For example, as a result of technological change nearly all new windows, roughly 87 percent, now qualify for this credit. As a result, all of these windows will continue to receive a tax credit if this mark becomes law.
My amendment is very simple in that it raises efficiency levels to reduce the types of products to only the efficient residential property that is available today. I am pleased that Senator Bingaman, the chairman of the Energy Committee, as well as Senator Feinstein, a longtime leader on transforming our energy policy, will make the tax credit more functional and reduce the overall score of the tax provision. As the sponsor of this provision in 2005, I can say that I believe this amendment returns the tax credit to the original intent of this committee when we enacted this credit into law in 2005. Without this amendment, I am concerned this tax credit will fail to facilitate a transformation to more energy efficient products that will cut energy demand and reduce carbon emissions.
I look forward to working with Chairman Baucus and Ranking Member Grassley on this issue and appreciate their continued efforts to work with me on energy efficiency tax incentives.
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