Armed Forces Tax Fairness Act of 2003 - Continued

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
SENATE
PAGE S4475
March 27, 2003

ARMED FORCES TAX FAIRNESS ACT OF 2003—CONTINUED

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I rise in strong support for this piece of legislation. I compliment my long-time friend, the Senator from Montana, for his work. We have enjoyed many projects together over the quarter of a century, and our distinguished Senator Grassley has taken a strong hand, as always, on matters regarding revenue and also the Armed Forces of the United States.

If I had named this bill, I would have called it the Armed Forces Family Tax Fairness Act of 2003 because as I have studied this legislation and made some contribution to the text of it, I have always had in mind the families of the men and women of the Armed Forces and others who serve in the cause of freedom for our citizenry the world over, who take enormous risks and, frankly, accept the hardships which for those who would lead sort of a normal life are hard to understand.

Traveling about the world, most recently with Senators LEVIN and ROCKEFELLER and my colleague from Kansas, covering that area in Pakistan and Qatar, Kuwait, we saw firsthand the brave men and women not only in uniform but the agency staff and others who hopefully will benefit from this legislation.

I compliment my two colleagues on their timely action in extending these tax benefits to military and Foreign Service personnel and to the families of the Space Shuttle Columbia astronauts.

At this historic moment in history, with Operation Iraqi Freedom in progress, it is fitting we take every opportunity to express appreciation we have for our men and women in uniform. Certainly one way to do that is to place a priority on legislation enhancing the compensation of Active-Duty, Reserve, and National Guard personnel, and their families.

In the Armed Services Committee, we also are engaged in such an effort and we do it annually. I assure my colleagues that in connection with the fiscal year 2004 Defense Authorization Act, we do our utmost to make sure every aspect of pay and benefits is closely examined.

With respect to the legislation before the Senate, I am particularly pleased to support the provision of capital gains relief to military homeowners in connection with the sale of their residence. This relief, which recognizes realities of military service, is long overdue.

Senator McCain introduced legislation last year, S. 1678, and I was happy to be a cosponsor and sought to achieve this purpose with him and others. I also view as particularly timely and well justified the provisions that are above-the-line tax deductions to Reserve and National Guard personnel who incur out-of-pocket expenses as a result of training operations and those benefiting the families of the Space Shuttle Columbia heroes.

It is fitting as hundreds of thousands of our military personnel—and many are engaged not only in the battle in Iraq but Afghanistan, which our group recently visited, and other trouble spots of the world—that the Senate recognize their contributions to freedom and the sacrifices they and their families make.

There are roughly 290 million citizens in this country. There are on active duty today about 1.5 to 1.6 million individuals. The normal standing force of the active forces of the United States runs about 1.2 to 1.3 million. Now with the augmentation of so many being called in the Reserve and the Guard to active duty, that is somewhat larger. However, that group represents only one half of 1 percent, roughly, of the population of 290 million citizens in this country.

We should always be mindful that so many are on active duty, particularly those engaged in armed combat, those who are on the television screens 24 hours a day now, assuming these courageous roles they are taking in combined forces, trying to free the Iraqi people of the bondage of these many years and to remove the weapons of mass destruction which threaten the very Members who occupy this Chamber from time to time. If those mass weapons spread throughout the world through the net of terrorism, small quantities of biological and other types of weapons of mass destruction could reach our shores and, indeed, inflict enormous harm against our people.

This is a very small group, less than A? percent, who take these risks to preserve the freedoms and give us a greater sense of security here at home.

I hope this bill receives 100 votes. I thank those who made it possible.