Firms Push Senate On R&D
After Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., moved recently to remove provisions that would extend the research and development tax credit and other business tax breaks from a jobs bill, a coalition of tech and other companies is again urging lawmakers to act to renew the measures.
The Senate is expected to take up the jobs legislation this week. A draft bipartisan jobs bill unveiled two weeks ago by the leaders of the Senate Finance Committee included a one-year extension of the R&D tax credit and other business tax breaks. But Reid opted to strip them out along with other unrelated provisions.
The R&D Credit Coalition argues, however, that extending the R&D tax credit will help retain U.S. jobs. And making the credit permanent and enhancing it would spur the creation of 100,000 jobs, the group claimed. "The research and development tax credit is a jobs credit - the Senate should act quickly to revive it, strengthen it, and make it permanent," the coalition said in a statement Monday.
The coalition added that when the credit expired at the end of 2009, the cost of hiring workers for research activities in the United States increased. "More than 70 percent of the credit allowed to expire in December went to U.S. wages," said the coalition, which is made up of dozens of companies and associations. "Why leave a proven jobs credit on the table?,"
Companies have been meeting with congressional aides and pushing for -- at the very least -- an extension of the credit. "Tech companies would certainly be relieved to see an extension, but a stronger, permanent credit is really the right recipe for recovery and long-term competitiveness," TechAmerica President and CEO Phil Bond said in a statement.
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