FAA Reauthorization and Tax Extenders

Floor Speech

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I also want to add my support for the FAA
reauthorization bill which the Senator from North Dakota talked about. It is important that we get this done. We have been operating without an authorization since 2007. We had a bill pass through the Senate by a vote of 93 to 0 back in March, and this is something that needs to be done.

So I hope we can get floor time scheduled for this and that we can get on that bill, get a conference report, and get it through and enacted because there are a number of important improvements that need to occur, and that legislation provides for that to happen. It has been kicking around here for way too long, so I hope we can get to that bill and quit having to do these month-to-month or--in this case, as it ends up being--the end-of-the-year extensions, which keeps us from doing what we need to do, and that is get a long-term reauthorization in place that provides some certainty and predictability for the users of aviation in this country.

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Mr. THUNE. If I might continue, Mr. President, let me just say with regard to the observations of the Senator from Montana that I couldn't agree more that we need to get these things done, and we need to provide some long-term certainty for those in this country who rely upon decisions that come out of the Congress. I know the Senator from Montana has offered an extenders bill that would provide at least some near-term relief for many of these provisions of law that expire and that impact so many across this country.

I would say through the Chair to my colleague from Montana that I agree with his premise. I think it comes down to how we go about doing that. The Senator from Montana has offered up a proposal that would extend many of these expiring tax provisions, but he does it in a way that raises taxes. I have a proposal I offered earlier in response to the majority leader's unanimous consent request to move a tax extenders bill that would substitute my bill for that one because my bill does all the same things the Senator from Montana wants to accomplish. But it does it with spending reductions--reducing spending--as opposed to raising taxes.

There are a number of things my bill would do, one of which is to extend the $215 million tax break for teachers to purchase books, supplies, computer equipment, and other materials for the classroom.

It also includes the biodiesel tax credit, which supports our Nation's budding biodiesel industry. It provides $854 million in tax relief for these biodiesel manufacturers to invest in our clean energy future.

The bill reinstates the State and local sales tax deduction, which provides $1.8 billion in tax relief to residents of States such as South Dakota who pay State and local sales taxes but are not allowed to deduct these taxes from their Federal income taxes. It also allows for the deduction of State and local property taxes, which saves taxpayers $1.5 billion as well.

My bill reinstates the research and development tax credit, which the President has supported for 2010. This important tax credit incentivizes important research and development across the country.

It also provides a number of needed tax credits for businesses to invest and create jobs, including refundable AMT credits for corporations, and it provides a generous doc fix. One of the things we talk about around here is the doc fix. On the doc fix, we continue to go month to month or quarter to quarter. Now we are good to the end of November. But at the end of November we are going to be dealing with this issue again. If we do not, physicians across the country are going to experience a significant and dramatic pay reduction, which will impair their ability to serve patients across this country who depend upon Medicare.

My doc fix provides a 2-percent increase for 2011 and another 2-percent increase for 2012. The current doc fix, as I said, is set to expire later this year, on November 30.

The way I do this is I fully offset this by spending cuts, including medical malpractice reform, a freeze on Federal salaries, reductions in wasteful, duplicative, and excessive government spending, rescinding unspent Federal funds including the stimulus, an expansion of the affordability exception to the individual mandate that was included in the recently passed health care reform bill and by disposing of unused and unneeded Federal property.

I also add in my proposal a new deficit reduction trust fund, where rescinded balances and money saved through this amendment will be deposited for the purposes of paying down the Federal debt. It does not include job-killing tax hikes on carried interest income, which would discourage investment and hurt our Nation's productivity, and does not include a 70-cent-per-barrel increase, a tax hike on oil, nor does it double count the revenues from that tax by saying it both offsets the cost to the bill and also adds money to the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund.

I concur entirely with the premise the Senator from Montana was addressing, that we need to get these things extended. We need to provide some permanence. But there is a difference in the approach on how we deal with that. The Senator from Montana proposed one way, I proposed another. I obviously would love to get a vote on this proposal because I think what we ought to be focused on right now, rather than raising taxes at a time when we have a very fragile economy in an economic downturn and making it more difficult for businesses to create jobs, that we ought to be looking at what we can do to reduce spending in our Federal budget and offset the cost of these extenders and pay for this 2-year extension of the doc fix, which also provides for a modest increase, not the significant reduction they are going to experience otherwise. We do this through spending reductions in the Federal budget. I hope we get an opportunity to vote on this.

I yield my time.

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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, if the Senator will yield, I say in response to that, that is absolutely true. Around here I think, traditionally, tax extenders have been something both sides have worked on. Generally, it tends to be kind of noncontroversial. I think our side is very open to discussions and would welcome an opportunity to sit down with the majority and the Senator from Montana and others, whoever they feel necessary, to work something out. We stand ready and willing to have that discussion and hopefully to get this thing put behind us.

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