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Floor Speech
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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, over the last few weeks, I have spoken with countless Tennesseans who are really appreciating the One Big Beautiful Bill because they are learning of the impact that it is going to have on their families, on their businesses, and on their pocketbooks. Tennesseans are telling me--once we talk about this bill, they are telling me how this law will help them make their business more successful, their community better, and will indeed end up leaving more cash in their pocketbook.
Thanks to the law, Tennessee families will save an average of $2,600 next year on taxes and see a take-home pay increase of as much as $10,000. This is going to give some much needed relief after 4 years of Bidenflation.
Over the August work period, it was absolutely wonderful. I met with restaurant businesses and servers, and they talked about the law's reduction on taxes on tips and overtime and how that is going to help them keep more money in their pocket.
Going from one side of the State to the other, I heard from seniors who are talking about how they are going to be able to lower their tax burden. That is because we have the $6,000 bonus deduction per senior, per year. When you are a couple, married filing jointly, that $12,000 bonus deduction for our Nation's seniors is basically going to remove the income tax from most of the Social Security payments for about 88 percent of our Nation's seniors.
Millions of hard-working families are planning for the future thanks to the law's enhanced child tax credit and expanded childcare access, and we have done this through the employer-provided childcare tax credit.
I appreciate my colleagues in Senate Finance working with me as we sought to get that into the legislation, as we sought to put in place the bonus deduction for seniors. These are things that are really going to serve so many Tennesseans so very well.
We had meetings with chambers and met with many in the business community. Hearing from so many of these small business owners, what they wanted to talk about was how, after the 2017 law was passed, they started hiring staff and growing that business. Now they are able to continue to keep this staff, to purchase new equipment, and to invest in their communities.
By making these tax cuts, the 2017 tax cuts, permanent, the estimate is that we will be protecting about 100,000 jobs in Tennessee. Much of this is because of the bonus depreciation, that 100 percent bonus depreciation deduction, immediate expensing of research and development, interest deduction, and 199A for passthroughs. These companies are looking at how they grow. They are looking forward to this growth.
I also had the opportunity, whether I was at the State fair or meeting with some members of the ag community or the Farm Bureau--we talked about the provision that we have in the law that raises the estate tax exemption to $15 million or $30 million for a couple. What this does is to allow these family farms, generational operations, to be passed on to the next generation so that that legacy of farming and hard work can continue.
We know that for small businesses and so many of our Nation's small business entrepreneurs, they have worked hard. They have built a business. They have built a manufacturing firm. And to know that they can pass it on to the next generation without fear of that generation having to sell the business in order to pay the tax.
This provision--raising that death tax or estate tax exemption--is going to prohibit double taxation. There are about 2 million family farms that this is going to affect, and we know they are appreciative of this.
For our military communities in Tennessee--and we have some wonderful military communities. We have Fort Campbell, which is primarily in Tennessee. We have Millington Air Naval Station. We have Arnold Engineering. We have the National Guard. We have such a strong presence in our State. This legislation, the Big Beautiful Bill, has $150 billion in a boost to our national defense funding. This is a way we can push forward with modernization and make certain that we remain the strongest lethal fighting force on the face of the Earth.
There is also funding for the Golden Dome missile defense system. This we are beginning to see a good bit of work in when you talk about the low Earth orbit satellites and beginning to build out this Golden Dome defense system to protect our country.
In addition to this, we have provisions in there for our military families to strengthen healthcare and childcare and improve housing and education for our servicemember families.
For 4 years under President Biden, Tennesseans suffered because of his anti-America energy policies. This sent the cost of electricity and gas soaring. So the Big Beautiful Bill ends these far-left mandates and regulations and provides made-in-America tax breaks to support energy production right here at home.
You know, Mr. President, when I talk to Tennesseans, they want us to be energy independent. They don't want us having to depend on other countries to be able to get oil and gas. They don't want us to have to import that. They want energy independence.
President Trump's pro-energy policy and this agenda is the reason why over this Labor Day weekend, our gas prices at the pump were at the lowest level that they have been in 5 years--the lowest level. This is something that people were noticing. They could feel that impact in their pocketbook.
The border and border security is vitally important to Tennesseans, and this legislation in the Big Beautiful Bill that is now a law has $75 billion in funding to hire additional ICE agents. And we have seen the results that have taken place--the Homeland Security being out there, working with law enforcement, conducting raids, apprehending these criminal illegal aliens.
People have wanted to see this done. You know, Mr. President, I have not talked to one single person who has said: I want MS-13, I want Tren de Aragua living in my neighborhood. We want them buying a house here. We want them setting up shop here. But what they do say is this: Thank goodness MS-13, Tren de Aragua, and these other violent gangs are being apprehended and they are being deported. That is what the Trump administration is doing, and it is exactly what the American people want to see done.
We also have provisions in the big beautiful law that will go back to building the wall and securing the southern border so we never have an open border like we had during the Biden years, where people are running across that border--as many as 160,000 a month. That is a population size larger than most cities in Tennessee.
There is also some money in this that is going to deal with transportation. Everybody knows that infrastructure is vitally important, and I want to touch on what is happening with aviation there. This is important to Tennessee.
The Nashville International Airport, in June, welcomed more than 2.4 million travelers. That was an alltime-high number. And that number, we know, is going to continue to grow. So the bill provides $12.5 billion to modernize our Nation's air traffic control system. That is going to help improve safety, speed, and efficiency. And we are appreciative that Secretary Duffy is putting his attention on how you modernize this system so it is more safe, secure, and efficient.
One of the provisions that I had the opportunity to work on was the Rural Health Transformation Program. In Tennessee, we have 95 counties; 78 of those 95 counties are deemed rural. And this Rural Health Transformation fund is a $50 billion fund. It is there to strengthen access to healthcare in rural areas.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Dr. Oz, who is our leader at CMS, has launched a web page for this program. It is going to reward innovation. Part of the money is going to be a payment to these hospitals, the other part--that $25 billion--is going to be, How do you innovate? Here is the money to innovate. How do you increase access?
And our rural hospitals and health clinics who are working on this issue can go to CMS.gov, and they can pull down the information for how to apply for these grants; how to make certain that they are using the resources that are there; learning more about this program and how it is going to be able to help them increase access to healthcare; how they can focus on workforce development and retention; and how they can look at innovative new processes and use technology.
We are looking forward to good results coming from that because smart, good people who are focused on delivering healthcare are going to have the opportunity to apply for these grants and to focus on how they make healthcare more accessible in these rural areas.
As you can see, there is so much in here that is a positive that will improve the lives of so many Tennesseans. And as I said, they are beginning to see it in their pocketbooks. They are seeing it at the gas pump. They know that their taxes--we have made those tax breaks permanent. And they know this is going to benefit their communities because you will see businesses grow, and you will see businesses hiring new workers.
I think that as people have celebrated Labor Day, they know that this is the time where they have a President in the White House who is putting them first. He is putting them and their future and the future for their kids--he is putting that first, and he is pushing forward with making certain that America and all of our States, our communities are going to be safe, secure, and prosperous.
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