Waiving Requirement of Clause 6(a) of Rule XIII With Respect to Consideration of Certain Resolutions
WAIVING REQUIREMENT OF CLAUSE 6(a) OF RULE XIII WITH RESPECT TO CONSIDERATION OF CERTAIN RESOLUTIONS -- (House of Representatives - September 25, 2008)
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Mr. WELCH of Vermont. I thank the gentleman from New York, my colleague on the Rules Committee. I thank my friend from Texas, also a colleague on the Rules Committee.
The legislation before us is long overdue. It's about jobs, about energy efficiency and energy independence, and it's about restoring our confidence that we can produce jobs and produce energy that's clean, environmentally sensitive and strong and durable to help move our economy ahead.
This transition language would allow us to extend about $42 billion in tax incentives. Mr. Speaker, I'm a skeptic oftentimes on tax incentives because they are frequently given to industries that are mature and profitable at the expense of taxpayers. An example of that, of course, is the $13 billion in tax breaks that continue to go to the oil industry that has been doing extremely well with the high price of oil.
Tax incentives properly should be focused on emerging technologies, and emerging industries, where our country, where our companies, our small businesses can use the boost in order to develop the new technologies that will solve a problem that we have, the need for energy, the need for clean energy, and the need to create jobs and energy independence here in this country. This legislation will do that.
I will give just an example. In Vermont, Jeff and Dorry Wolf are two folks who moved to Vermont in 1998, and they had a dream. The dream was they could create a company that would build renewable energy. They got involved in solar energy. And their company, when they started it, at a time when this was a pipe dream, has now become one of our big companies in Vermont. It's become a leader in solar technology. It is doing work all around the country. And these incentives are critical to its continuation.
So, Mr. Speaker, I urge us to pass this rule so that we can pass the underlying legislation, move towards energy independence, create jobs here in this country, and clean up our environment.
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