Setting Forth the Congressional Budget for the United States Government for Fiscal Year 2022 and Setting Forth the Appropriate Budgetary Levels for Fiscal Years 2023 Through 2031
Floor Speech
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Mr. LEE. Mr. President, I call up my amendment No. 3141 and ask that it be reported by number.
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Mr. LEE. Mr. President, States and localities are not allowed to tax land held by the Federal Government. As a result of this, Congress created the PILT Program to reimburse States for that lost revenue.
Now, PILT payments are determined by a complex formula, a formula that unfortunately is far lower than it would be under a tax equivalency. Twenty-one years ago, the USDA concluded that PILT payments needed to be increased by 3\1/2\ times. On certain Federal lands, the number is much larger. A Utah study showed that for lands held in Utah cities, it needed to be 262 times larger.
My amendment would help correct this inaccuracy. It would direct the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a study on the true taxable value of PILT land and treat it as if it were owned by anyone else other than the Federal Government and therefore subject to taxation. It would reform the program to more accurately compensate States for the revenue that they lose simply by virtue of the fact that they have Federal land in them.
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Mr. LEE. I call for the yeas and nays.
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Mr. LEE. Madam President, I call up my amendment No. 3815 and ask it be reported by number.
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Mr. LEE. Madam President, inflation is out of control. Very few seem to be willing to talk about it, much less address it.
Now, look, it hasn't been this bad since the great recession. Even then, only two of the months out of that entire crisis were as bad or worse than inflation is right now, and it is showing up in every consumer product Americans buy. Everything from groceries to gasoline, to housing, to healthcare is getting more expensive. Every dollar that we churn into the economy, that we print out when we don't have it, makes these and all other products more expensive.
Let's be clear. The spending is facilitated by this budget resolution, and that same spending will exacerbate inflation. It will worsen the pain that Americans are feeling as they are filling their gas tanks and stocking their pantries and refrigerators.
When inflation is surging, we can't be piling onto the problem. We are not elected to make life worse. We need to get inflation back under our control.
This simple amendment would empower Congress to do that by making it harder for Congress to increase spending whenever inflation is above 3 percent.
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