Providing for Consideration of H.R. 10, Success and Opportunity Through Quality Charter Schools Act; Relating to Consideration of H.R. 4438, American Research and Competitiveness Act of 2014; And For Other Purposes

Floor Speech

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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague.

I want to start by congratulating the bipartisan effort on the charter school bills. I thank Mr. Polis for his leadership on that. And I wish that was all there was to say about this rule. Unfortunately, it is not.

You might think this rule was only about charter schools. The title is, Success and Opportunity Through Quality Charter Schools Act. But then if you turn a couple pages in, you will find in paragraph 13 a reference to H.R. 4438. That is not the charter school bill. That is what we call the research and development tax credit bill.

So why is it here in this rule on charter schools, and why does it reference part B of the rule in front of us now, which says that the budgetary effects of this act shall not be entered on either the PAYGO scorecard--and it goes on to say some other things?

Well, the PAYGO scorecard has nothing to do with charter schools. It does have something to do with the R&D tax credit. And I want to explain to people what has happened here because it is important that the public know.

Last night, we were scheduled to have the debate on a bill to extend the R&D tax credit law. We were all ready to go, and all of a sudden the debate stopped and the plug was pulled.

And so I have got to say something for a second about this research and tax development credit.

I think the idea of extending the R&D tax credit bill is broadly supported. That is not the issue on the tax credit bill. The issue is a permanent extension that is not paid for.

There are a number of other bills coming out of the Ways and Means Committee. When you add them all up, they add $310 billion to our deficit. Unpaid for. Put it on our credit card.

It is kind of interesting, Mr. Speaker, because it was only about 3 or 4 weeks ago that here on the floor of this House we had a debate on the Republican budget and they told us the number one priority was to reduce that deficit. Yet now we have a bunch of bills that say let's put it on the credit card.

And, Mr. Speaker, you know that at the end of the day, we all have to pay when we put it on our credit card.

We pointed out that if you don't pay for it by closing some other special interest tax breaks, like tax breaks for big oil companies, someone else is going to have to pay.

Now what we didn't realize is that the Republican plan as of last night was to pay for the R&D tax credit extension by cutting Medicare, Mr. Speaker. Because their failure to come up with offsets in the bill meant that current law would continue in effect.

In the past, we have turned off the trigger that says it is paid for by a sequester to a number of programs, the biggest being Medicare. But our Republican colleagues didn't turn it off.

So when they decided not to pay for the R&D tax credit in the bill and decided not to turn off the sequester, what they were aiming for was to have Medicare pay for that tax extender and to ask the people who depend on that program to foot the bill for the R&D tax credit.

Well, Mr. Speaker, we blew the whistle on that issue last night. We saw our colleagues go scampering back to the Rules Committee to change it.

We will talk a little later today, but the bottom line is the same. When you put stuff on the credit card, someone pays the piper at the end of the day.

We have proposed paying for it, in part, by closing some of the wasteful special interest tax loopholes in the Code. We think the R&D tax credit is a pro-growth policy, but subsidies to big oil companies; no.

And so, because our Republican colleagues don't want to pay for it in the bill, they are going to increase the deficit. In fact, the rule yesterday waived the rules of the House. Because the R&D tax credit bill was inconsistent with the Republicans' own budget.

The budget that was passed 3 or 4 weeks ago, it is inconsistent with it. Even under the Enron accounting in that budget, it throws it out of balance. Our Republican colleagues need to know that. You are putting it on the credit card. At the end of the day, that means if you are not going to ask Medicare to pay for it, which apparently had been the original plan, you are going to be cutting our kids' education, you are going to be cutting research at places like the National Institutes of Health that try to find cures and treatments for diseases. You are going to be letting the infrastructure of this country come to a halt. In fact, the budget calls for allowing the transportation trust fund to go insolvent.

That is what happens when you refuse to take fiscal responsibility and pay for things.

It was interesting to discover that the plan last night was to allow the Medicare cut to go into effect to pay for it. We are glad we are not doing that anymore.

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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. We are glad that after we called attention to that issue, our Republican colleagues realized that it was not a good idea to have an across-the-board cut in Medicare to pay for business tax incentives. We are glad they woke up to that fact.

But the underlying report here is going to remain the same. Putting $310 billion on the credit card, someone has got to pay. We should take the responsibility in this House to figure out how we are going to do it.

We put forward proposals as to how to do it. Unfortunately, despite having passed a budget a couple of weeks ago, they are now waiving their rules on their own budget for these purposes.

I look forward to the conversation later today.

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