American Recovery And Reinvestment Act Of 2009 - Conference Report
Floor Speech
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Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, the Senate tonight will send to the President the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. I think this legislation is a first step not only in turning the economy around in the short term, but also in laying the groundwork for rebuilding and growing it over the near and longterm. But we need to do much more.
I think it is important to lay down a marker right now that our job on rebuilding this economy is not finished. We must continue to focus on making the right kind of investments, ones that help us realize our maximum economic potential and ones that update our economic engines for the 21st century and beyond. To do this, we must make a commitment to invest in our capacity to innovate and in our capability to commercialize new technologies and discoveries.
I have worked with many of my colleagues, especially Chairman Baucus and Senator Hatch, on bolstering the incentives that support our country's research capabilities.
For example, I have long been a supporter of making the R&D tax credit permanent. I continue to believe that we have done ourselves a tragic disservice by failing to provide long-term predictability to the very businesses that are driving economic growth and are at the frontline of every innovation and discovery that moves us forward as a society.
We all know that if the high-wage jobs of the future are going to be created in the United States we have to make the necessary investments in intellectual infrastructure to keep American business competitive in the global economy.
Investing in America's intellectual infrastructure is key to economic growth and instrumental in spurring entrepreneurial innovation and job creation. It is just as important as our commitment to physical infrastructure.
Yet, thousands of companies employing U.S. workers in cutting-edge, research-oriented industries such as biotechnology, high technology, and clean technology are suffering from the same fate that has affected our U.S. manufacturing companies. Without credit markets properly functioning and with little to no investment from the equity markets or venture capital, this next generation of job creators will shrink and become less competitive in the global economy if we do not take action.
Economic analysis tells us that because R&D doesn't produce fast cash it is often a target when times are rough and companies need to reduce costs. It is in our collective interest as a country to help companies take a different path during this economic downturn and find ways to help innovative companies sustain and increase their R&D spending now so they are better positioned to succeed when economic conditions turn around.
I will ask to have printed in the Record a letter from 11 technology-oriented, R&D-dependent trade associations such as the Biotechnology Industry Organization, BIO, the Advanced Medical Technology Association, AdvaMed, and others--that represent companies employing hundreds of thousands of U.S. workers reliant on our commitment to intellectual infrastructure.
This letter was recently sent to all members of the Senate Finance Committee and outlines an approach that would allow small businesses to accelerate their use of accumulated net operating losses, NOLs, if they invest in U.S.-based research and development.
Expanding incentives to encourage more R&D activity in the United States will be essential to the American innovators who are developing the technologies of the future.
We must commit to considering new and thoughtful legislative approaches like this one that can truly move us forward in creating the high-quality, high-paying jobs of this century, and I look forward to working with my colleagues on these issues.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the letter to which I referred be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record
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