The Jobs, Energy, Families and Disaster Relief Act of 2008

Floor Speech

THE JOBS, ENERGY, FAMILIES AND DISASTER RELIEF ACT OF 2008 -- (Senate - July 29, 2008)

Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, in the book, ``The Ethics of the Fathers,'' the sage Rabbi Tarfon taught:

It is not up to us to finish the work, but neither are we free to avoid it.

Later this week, the Senate will vote on the Jobs, Energy, Families and Disaster Relief Act of 2008. This bill may not finish all the work that we need to do. But this bill does do work that we are not free to avoid. I urge my colleagues to vote to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed.

This legislation is important to our economy, to our energy security, and to the wellbeing of America's working families. And it is also vital to helping people harmed by natural disasters to get back on their feet.

Some call this an ``extenders'' package. It extends tax incentives that are important to American businesses and families.

It includes the deduction for college tuition and the R&D credit. It includes the deduction for State and local income taxes. And it includes the new markets tax credit which helps spur investment in low-income communities.

But S. 3335 is more than just an extenders bill. It also contains vital new provisions.

It includes tax credits for plug-in vehicles. It includes a long-term extension of tax credits for solar power. And it includes a badly needed fix to the highway trust fund, which finances a large portion of our Nation's transportation infrastructure. That has to be extended; otherwise, a lot of jobs will go wanting. A lot of construction jobs will not be there, unless we maintain and continue financing for the highway program.

I urge my colleagues to take up this bill and pass it.

The vote this week will not be the first time this year that the Senate has sought to extend this important tax legislation.

In May, the House passed H.R. 6049, the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008. That bill included a roughly $17 billion energy tax package. And it included $37 billion in other tax extenders. The bill was offset with responsible tax policies that would have changed the timing of tax on offshore hedge fund managers and multinational corporations.

The majority leader tried to take up that bill in June. In fact, he tried twice. But some of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle would not allow us to proceed to the bill.

The first attempt to proceed failed, 50 to 44, on June 10. The second attempt failed a week later, with a vote of 52 to 44.

Some argued that the House bill lacked key items. For example, some said that it should have included relief from the alternative minimum tax.

And some objected to provisions that were in the bill. For example, some said that it should not have included Davis-Bacon protections on prevailing wages.

In response to those and other concerns, I introduced S. 3125, a revised version of the bill that passed the House.

S. 3125 included a one-year patch for the alternative minimum tax. It would prevent more than 20 million families from paying a tax that Congress never intended them to pay.

And in an effort to reach bipartisan compromise, that bill omitted the Davis-Bacon provision.

But my friends on the other side still objected to that package. They expressed concern over other items, such as a provision that allows attorney contingency fees to be deducted in the year that they are incurred, rather than upon disposition of the case.

I worked to address the concerns of my friends on the other side of the aisle. And last Friday, I introduced another bill S. 3335, the Jobs, Energy, Families and Disaster Relief Act of 2008. That is the bill that I hope the Senate will turn to this week.

This legislation includes the core of the previous bill I introduced. It includes a strong energy package. It includes an AMT patch. And it includes the House-passed individual and business tax extenders.

S. 3335 also contains several new items. In response to growing concerns over our Nation's crumbling infrastructure, this bill would shore up the highway trust fund. Last Wednesday, the House passed a stand-alone version of this highway fix by an overwhelming vote of 387 to 37.

And S. 3335 contains billions in relief for those affected by devastating natural disasters.

And in response to the other key criticism of S. 3125, the one related to attorneys' fees, S. 3335 dropped that provision altogether.

In short, the bill that we will have a chance to vote on this week is aimed at helping create jobs, advancing our energy independence, helping working families, and offering relief to those areas that have experienced natural disasters.

And by making major modifications to past versions of the bill, it is aimed at getting broad support.

Now, some Senators really want to vote for this because it is the right thing to do. But they are told by the leadership: Don't do it. They want to vote for it; they are chafing at the bit to vote for it, but they are told not to do it. Why, I don't know.

Now some on the other side have also objected that we should not consider a revenue bill that originated in the Senate.

While it is true that the House must originate revenue bills, there is precedent for the Senate's acting in advance of the House.

For example, the other side did just that in moving the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act in 2005. The Senate took up its bill, S. 2020, on November 16, 2005, nearly a month before the Senate received the House companion measure.

And in the case of the bill before us this week, I think that it is important for Senators to be able to vote for the improved version of the bill, the bill that includes all the changes that I have been discussing.

And after we get a good vote on this bill, we can move to amend a House-passed bill with our Senate measure.

Congress needs to do more than just extend legislation. Congress should work on new policy, new legislation, and new ideas.

We need to take a hard look at our Tax Code. We need to make it fairer and simpler. I have begun that process, through a series of hearings in the Finance Committee.

We need to address the unsustainable growth in health care costs. I have also begun an effort to that end, through a series of hearings on health care, which accounts for one-sixth of America's economy.

And we need to address the vital need for a new energy policy, one that accounts for the changing realities of our environment, our national security, and our economy.

For more than a year, I have been working to pass a meaningful package of energy-tax incentives. It is a package with the goal of moving this country toward greater energy independence. And it is a package that would help to prepare our economy for a system that also addresses global warming.

These are big challenges. And they will not be solved through one bill, or one congressional session. But even though we cannot finish the work, we still have an obligation to do what we can.

This bill may not finish all the work that we need to do. But this bill does do work that we are obligated to do.

Let us do that work. Let us invoke cloture on the motion to proceed. And let us provide this help to America's economy, to America's energy security, and to the wellbeing of America's working families.

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