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Floor Speech

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Mr. YOUNG. There are also a number of provisions that had to be written in a very specific way to comply with this Byrd rule. The underlying bill is an effort to fix one of those instances, and I am supportive of this policy change. I want to make that clear.

Another provision that was, unfortunately, not included in the final bill as a result of the Byrd rule was an exemption for qualified religious institutions from the excise tax on investment income of certain private colleagues and universities, also known as the university endowment tax. The qualified religious institution provision would exempt any institution that, in short, is longstanding and has substantive ties to a religious organization.

Religious institutions have served a very important purpose in our country throughout our history and have, by and large, not been offenders of the woke and DEI problems that are rampant at many other major universities with large endowments.

As long as my Democratic colleagues are keen on fixing provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that were the result of this Byrd process, I think it is only fair that we fix this one as well. Again, I strongly support the underlying bill, but we will have to object, unless the Senator can agree to my request.

Accordingly, I ask that the Senator modify her request to include my amendment, which is at the desk; that the amendment be considered and agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

It is understandable that my colleagues would want to characterize this imminently reasonable request as something that is parochial in nature. I will say, however, that when we advanced the largest tax cut for middle- and working-class Americans in American history, when we advanced this broader initiative to make Medicaid more sustainable for all Americans and take Medicaid back to its original purpose, when we invested in critical resources in our military--at a time when the world is not becoming less dangerous; it is becoming more dangerous-- when we beefed up border security, we also thought it right and proper to ensure that our religious institutions were cared for, that we continued to incentivize their critical investments in education and other important causes.

Unfortunately, it was through a Democratic Byrd process. It was a partisan effort to initiate a process to strip out the provisions that would have exempted religious institutions from attacks that should not be applied to them.

So I seek an exemption on behalf of all these religious institutions across the country that are broadly supported, at the same time that I seek relief for the Senator from Nevada, in the interest of her State, for gambling purposes.

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