Free Flow of Information Act of 2007 - Motion to Proceed - Resumed

Floor Speech

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION ACT OF 2007--MOTION TO PROCEED--Resumed -- (Senate - July 29, 2008)

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TAX EXTENDERS

Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, folks across our country feel as if they are drowning as wave after wave of bad economic news hits them.

I urge my colleagues to vote for this important legislation because at times like this, when so many people feel they are close to going under, they look to their Government to toss them a life preserver, not burden them with a 2-ton cement block of bills to pay and then wish them luck. Congress has shown a willingness to shore up Wall Street. This legislation gives us an opportunity to shore up the folks who are on Main Street.

People across our country want to see the Senate address the issues that are most important to them, and at the top of that list is energy. Obviously, our country is now at a crossroads. The country can continue to keep going on the road we are on, living on high-priced fuel and spewing carbon dioxide into the air from fossil fuels that choke the planet, or we can take a different road. With this legislation, we can start down that route.

This legislation put the country on a path toward real energy independence. It would reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, and it would extend tax credits for renewable energy technologies--solar, geothermal, wind, hydroelectricity, geothermal heat pumps, and fuel cells. These new energy choices will help stem the devastating effects of global warming.

On the other hand, the failure to extend existing renewable energy credits sends the wrong signals to renewable energy companies and investors. It will literally cut off the pipeline of promising renewable energy projects at a time when many of these technologies are just getting off the ground.

How often is it possible to point to legislation and say that this bill will actually lead to a more promising future? In this case, businesses, workers, consumers, and homeowners all have an opportunity to be part of a brighter energy future. Truckers would get an exemption from the highway excise tax so they could install fuel-saving anti-idling equipment. Consumers would get a new tax credit when they buy the plug-in hybrids. There would be a tax break for the bicycle commuters. For the first time, wave, tidal energy, and small wind turbines would be eligible for renewable energy tax credits. The bill also extends production tax credits for biodiesel. Consumers and businesses would be encouraged to live on less energy but in a fashion that does not compromise our economy or our quality of life. There would be tax credits for energy-efficient homes, commercial buildings, energy-efficient appliances, and also recycling equipment.

It is my view that the tax provisions of this legislation make sense for taxpayers and they make sense for the environment and our businesses, and in that sense, we have an opportunity to act for America's future. I hope this legislation will pass.

I would like to touch quickly on several other parts of the legislation that I think are particularly important, and especially the county payments legislation.

If you live in a big city in this country, you may not know a whole lot about this legislation, but the county payments program keeps rural communities throughout the country--particularly in my home State--alive. The legislation includes more than $3.7 billion in funds that are desperately needed for rural schools, counties, and communities. Without the safety net funding included in the bill, rural communities across the country will face a future without schools and without vital services such as law enforcement and essential road repair. Pink slips have already been sent out to teachers and county workers, and unless the Congress acts quickly, these devastating losses to the very fabric of rural communities would become permanent.

There are counties in my home State that now literally face dissolution. Folks who live there don't know what to expect, but they are bracing for the worst. I am just not going to let that happen.

This energy tax package contains the last best hope to help these counties, and the Senate should not turn its back on rural America now.

Specifically, the package contains a 4-year extension of the Secure Rural Schools Program that I authored in 2000 and 5 years of full funding for the Payments in Lieu of Taxes Program.

This proposal closely mirrors the legislative proposal I put together last year with Senators Baucus, Bingaman, and Majority Leader Reid--a proposal that overwhelmingly passed with bipartisan support by a vote of 74 to 23. Senator Craig and Senator Domenici also helped with critical efforts to move the legislation forward and to give it strong, bipartisan support.

When folks in rural America are losing their jobs, their homes, and the chance to educate their kids, the Federal Government should not break its promise to rural communities. When Federal forests were created in Oregon and around the country, rural communities were promised they would get a share of the revenue from those forests. This revenue sharing was intended to make up for the loss of Federal forest land from the local tax base. As the benefits from forest management changes with the times, Congress can't walk away from its responsibility to provide funding to the counties for their contribution in creating the Nation's forests. Since that original effort, it has been clear that local communities needed some measure of support.

By providing funds through 2011, this bill gets our rural counties off the fiscal roller coaster they have been on, particularly during these difficult economic times. It gives them stable funding so they can concentrate on the real work of planning for the future. Nationally, this would mean $3.7 billion, and in my home State of Oregon, it would mean hundreds of millions of dollars for schools, public safety, roads, and other essential county services.

In the midst of an energy crisis, our schools face big challenges. An Energy Department study reported that schools spend about $8 billion on energy each year, second only to spending on books and computers. The same study estimated that 61 percent of public school districts had insufficient energy budgets. As a result, the schools--especially our rural schools--are forced to make difficult decisions about whether they can fully afford to heat or cool their buildings or whether they are going to have to cut some essential service, such as the school bus service in rural areas. Reauthorizing the county payments program would keep the lights on in the classrooms and make sure our youngsters have the basics they need in order to be able to learn.

The Secure Rural Schools and Community Self Determination Act of 2000 has worked. It has built collaboration between counties, forest product firms, and environmentalists in communities in over 700 counties in 41 States across the Nation. A key part of that collaboration has included funding projects to restore the national forests, and those would include providing renewable woody biomass that is part of the renewable energy solution this legislation would provide.

Finally, on this point, these funds are a critical lifeline to rural areas. I point out that rural schools and counties would not be the only ones who suffer if this bill isn't passed. But I want to highlight the county payments legislation tonight particularly.

I am going to be going home this weekend for townhall meetings in the rural part of my State. I will hear again and again this weekend how, without this program, without the essential program for rural communities that, in effect, built on something that started a century ago, we will see some of those rural communities dissolve before our eyes. I cannot allow that to happen on my watch.

Finally, a quick comment on one other section of the legislation. I see that my friend from Arizona is here, and I want him to know that I will wrap up very briefly.

Mr. President, with respect to the tax extenders provisions of this legislation, I can only say that businesses are calling for this. Typical taxpayers are calling for it. Teachers are saying they need it. Once again, we have to look at the consequences of not passing an important domestic initiative. This bill includes help for folks who are hurting right now. It includes help with relief to people in the Midwest who are still hurting from this year's floods. It helps businesses by renewing the business research and development tax credit. This is very important because our fast-growing technology companies say it is critical for their plans to grow and hire new staff. High-tech companies are some of the best employers in my home State and around the country, and they offer family-wage jobs that Americans can depend on.

Both parties agree that the research and development credit should be extended and that it will be--some day. That is what they say, Mr. President--some day. That doesn't do much good for struggling manufacturers now. They have to plan their investments in order to be able to grow. They say that R&D credits are critical to doing that. By holding it up, the Congress is pushing our companies to outsource the important work. Clearly, no Member of the Senate could want that to happen, but without these credits, we are not having the proper incentive to keep jobs in the United States. I want to see high-skill, high-wage jobs here in our communities. We are the world leaders in research and development, and it is moments like this that will either keep us in that position or will start us heading down the path of becoming followers.

I want to finally express my appreciation to the chairman of the Finance Committee, Senator Baucus, for his fine work on this legislation. I particularly appreciate the many times in which he has assisted me with the Secure Rural Schools Program. A host of other colleagues: Leader Reid, Chairman Bingaman, Senator Smith, Senator Domenici, among others. I also express my appreciation to Senator Tester, our new Senator from the State of Montana, who has been a champion of rural schools and this program as well for all of his assistance.

I urge the support of the critical Baucus legislation.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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