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Van Hollen Statement on Senate Ethanol Amendment

Statement

Date: June 14, 2011
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Agriculture and Food

Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee, issued the following statement today on Senator Coburn's amendment that would have repealed the costly Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC), or "blenders tax credit," which provides 45 cents per gallon to blenders of ethanol:

"A realistic conversation about deficit reduction must include both cuts and revenues, and Senator Coburn's amendment to eliminate $6 billion in tax earmarks for ethanol is an important part of this discussion. His willingness to cut special interest tax breaks for the purpose of deficit reduction is encouraging. Instead of cutting investments in education and infrastructure, we need to look at cutting other corporate pork like wasteful subsidies for the oil-and-gas industry. American taxpayers are handing Big Oil over $20 billion in subsidies while their profits are going through the roof. We need to end these and other special interest tax breaks if we're going to get serious about reducing the deficit."


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