Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Act of 2013 -- Motion to Proceed -- Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I wanted to take a couple of minutes now to underscore the importance of the Senate passing the EXPIRE Act now, and in particular to highlight what the cost of inaction would be if the Senate fails to act.

This legislation is critically needed because it is an essential tool to prevent a tax increase and particularly the kind of tax increase that will harm our ability to create more good-paying jobs--high-skilled, high-wage jobs. These are the jobs tied to innovation.

Without this legislation, for example, what we would have is a new tax on innovation because we wouldn't renew for a period of 2 years, as we work on tax reform, the research and development tax credit. This credit is absolutely essential because it is what is used by the employers who are coming up with innovative approaches to create more long-term employment for our country. This credit is used to help pay the wages for those kinds of innovation-oriented jobs. Without this legislation, we would have in this country a tax on innovation. I don't think that is where this country wants to go.

It will be harder without this legislation to have employers hire veterans--veterans who are now coming out in throngs to job fairs in cities across the country. Employers will find it even harder to assist them in terms of finding employment.

Without this legislation, when an underwater homeowner gets hold of a life raft that keeps them in their homes when their lender works with them to try to work out an arrangement to reduce their obligation, reduce their debt, that underwater homeowner would be taxed on phantom income. So right when that underwater homeowner is trying to get their head above water, without this legislation the Tax Code would shove them back underwater once more. I don't think that is where our country wants to go.

I don't think our country wants to give a back of the hand to millions of students already up to their eyeballs in debt. Without this legislation, they would have to go even deeper into debt.

Producing clean energy will become more expensive, risking the kind of high-tech jobs the Congress wants and is working in a bipartisan way to protect.

So with the EXPIRE Act we can address all these issues, bring greater certainty to our economy, put an expiration date on the broken tax system, and lay the foundation for working on tax reform and moving away from what has been a long run of stop-and-go tax extender policies. We ought to get away from that, and the point of this legislation is, between now and the end of 2015, to work on comprehensive bipartisan tax reform.

A number of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have talked about their interest in this and that they wish we were doing comprehensive reform. I think colleagues have heard me say on the floor of the Senate I'd much prefer to be doing comprehensive tax reform, but when Chairman Baucus went to China, it became clear to me it wasn't going to be possible to get comprehensive tax reform done in this session.

What I sought to do is to make sure we wouldn't do further harm to middle-class families, and small businesses, and those who are creating the innovative jobs. That is why we need this legislation and need to use the legislation when it passes as a bridge to tax reform.

The bill is called the EXPIRE Act. People have often said: What does that mean? It is not just what it means--the bill actually does expire. I have indicated to my colleagues on the Finance Committee that this will be the last extenders bill on my watch. We are not going to have any more of them on my watch. We are going to move to create a stronger, better, more pro-growth, fair tax system, which allows us to be more competitive in a tough global economy and create good-paying jobs. The tax reform process is not going to be a walk in the park, but it is only going to grow harder if the Senate fails to pass the EXPIRE Act first.

We have had bipartisan proposals in the past. Our former colleague Senator GREGG worked with me for 2 years, and we sat together on a sofa almost every week for 2 years to create what is the first bipartisan Federal income tax reform bill in three decades. With his retirement, thankfully Senator Coats and Senator Begich stepped in. So we know it can be done, but that task will simply be harder if the Senate fails to pass the EXPIRE Act.

The first thing people are going to say is: If the Senate couldn't deal with these extenders on a temporary basis, how in the world will the Senate be able to take up comprehensive tax reform?

Fortunately, at a time when many think Washington is utterly broken, the distinguished senior Senator from Utah, Mr. Hatch, was willing to work with me and meet me halfway in terms of producing a comprehensive, bipartisan effort to move forward on these extenders. It wasn't easy, but it got done, and it got out of the Finance Committee with an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote. The bill may not be perfect, but the committee got it done with the kind of bipartisan approach Americans want to see more of. I hope the Senate will want to do the same thing. I was encouraged by the procedural vote we had earlier this week.

So with tonight's developments, I simply underscore the importance of passing the EXPIRE Act. I hope Senators on a bipartisan basis will join me in supporting the legislation. It is going to meet urgent needs of our people now, and if we can get it passed and signed into law quickly, it will allow us to turn our attention exclusively to the kind of tax overhaul that is long overdue. That can bring Democrats and Republicans together, as we saw several decades ago when progressive Democrats and conservative Republicans joined together for tax reform. We can go to that agenda as soon as we address the immediate needs behind the urgent requirement of enacting the extenders bill quickly.

I hope we will see the Senate do that in the next few days ahead.

I thank my colleagues, particularly on the Finance Committee--Democrats and Republicans--for the good and cooperative bipartisan work.

I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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