American Recovery And Reinvestment Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

American Recovery And Reinvestment Act Of 2009

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Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I thank my colleagues, Senator Hatch and Senator Bingaman, for helping us work on this modified language--Senator Bingaman, particularly--related to plug-in vehicles. I thank my colleagues who have worked on additional amendments as part of this qualification of the ITC manufacturing credit; conservation bonds in the underlying bill that I know my colleague, Senator Feingold, has worked on; Senators BINGAMAN and CARPER on a technical fix to carbon sequestration; I know the Senators in the Northeast and the Northwest have worked on provisions of existing modifications to the wood stove amendment we helped in the 2007 bill; and my colleagues, Senators SNOWE, FEINSTEIN, BINGAMAN, and KERRY on updates for the enhancement effectiveness of home energy efficiency in the Tax Code.

I think all of these things make for a very important amendment for the stimulus package because it is about immediate stimulus and it is about job creation, both in the near term and the opportunity for tremendous job creation in the long term.

The underlying amendment deals with the issue of creating and expensing for those who invest in plug-in battery technology or components. The United States currently is the leader in research and development of battery technology. Unfortunately, the number of manufacturing facilities in the United States that take advantage of that R&D is zero--zero opportunities currently in manufacturing in the United States.

What we know around the globe is that countries, such as China, have over 250,000 people working on battery technology and over 150 partners. We know Europeans and others are quick to work on this technology. Why? Because many people believe we are going to make this transformation off fossil fuel and on to cars powered by our electricity grid. So we know we are moving in that direction, but we are not doing anything to provide incentives so that manufacturing can take place in the United States.

I am not talking necessarily about domestic manufacturers. I am not saying we are not talking about them. We are talking about making sure--whether it is Toyota, whether it is Tesla Motors, or someone not even on the horizon today, or what is happening in Detroit--that the United States does not continue to import their battery technology but starts manufacturing in the United States.

This is a great opportunity for us in manufacturing to complement the ITC manufacturing credit that went to other renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, to bring some of that manufacturing into the United States. I think that provision is tremendously important, but I say to my colleagues on the Senate floor, I cannot think of a bigger opportunity for job creation in the future than helping to make this transition off fossil fuel and on to the grid. If we fail to make this step now, we will be as dependent on foreign battery technology as we are on Mideast fossil fuel today. We don't want to make that mistake.

We know in the small business provisions of this bill, we are giving expensing opportunities so that with the depreciation rate takedown, people will make more investments now. That is the same thing we are doing here, making investments in plug-in technology to stimulate job creation around this technology and help us with millions of long-term jobs and an opportunity to get off fossil fuel and deliver for our constituents a cheaper source of transportation in the future.

I thank the Chair and yield the floor.

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Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, in response to my colleague, the notion of plug-in technology was discussed in the Finance Committee. We decided to offer this amendment on the floor instead. We know the economic opportunity we are going to lose by not making this investment is great.

What is so unique about this is that it is stimulative now, it is job creation, and it, as the President says, puts us in a position in a key technology area in which we know the United States wants to be competitive. I believe it is a very winning proposition for the stimulus bill.

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