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Washington, D.C. - Convinced that jobs and tax relief go hand in hand in creating a strong and prosperous economy, U.S. Congressman Kevin Brady (R-The Woodlands) member of the tax writing and international trade House Ways and Means Committee worked today to advanced job generating legislation to the House Floor. The full House Ways and Means Committee passed the American Jobs Creation Act of 2003 H.R. 2896, 24-15.
"The economy grew between four and seven percent in July, August, and September, proving President Bush's tax cuts and child tax credits have done their part to jump start the economy. To keep the economic momentum going, Congress must act now revise antiquated tax codes that punish U.S. companies and penalize investment right here at home", said Brady.
The American Jobs Creation Act includes tax relief and investment incentives for U.S. employers of all sizes. Notably, the American Jobs Creation Act:
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Reduces the tax rate for U.S. producers and manufacturers from 35 to 32 percent;
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Includes an across-the-board rate cut for all C-corporations with less than $20 million in taxable income;
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Expands the size of companies exempt from the unfair corporate Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) from $7.5 million of gross receipts all the way up to $20 million; and
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Repeals the Foreign Sales Corporation-Extraterritorial Income (FSC-ETI) tax regime to head off $4 billion in tariffs against U.S. goods.
This bill is about creating jobs – real jobs for working Americans. As our economy continues on the road to recovery, the key to remaining on course is job creation.
American employers and workers are at an unfair competitive advantage compared to their foreign competitors because of the high level at which they are taxed. This bill will help U.S. businesses retain more of their earnings for reinvestment and job creation.
Every domestic manufacturing sectors benefits under from this legislation. Our Texas manufacturing sectors, especially the timber and paper industry stand to gain from a lower (32 percent) tax rate on their manufacturing income, including that associated with timber production. Lower tax rates are critical to the timber industry because US tax rates on timber and forest products manufacturing are the highest among their competitor countries.
"It's bad enough that when it comes to trading and selling high quality US goods and services our companies face unfair tariffs and penalties from foreign countries, but what's worse is when our own tax code penalizes our own backyard industries", said Brady.
Brady authored the orphan drug tax credit portion of the bill. This provision helps offset half of the qualified clinical trial expenses. Approximately 20 million Americans suffer from more than 5,000 rare diseases and disorders, such as ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, epilepsy, pulmonary hypertension, sickle cell, Huntington's disease, Lupus and others. Orphan drugs treat these rare diseases with patient populations of 200,000 or less.
"Our goal is to get life saving drugs and therapies into the hands of patients with rare diseases in a safe, quick and affordable manner," said Brady. "We do that by eliminating unnecessary delays and costs thereby encouraging biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to research, develop and manufacture these drugs even though the market for them may be relatively small.
"Without continued research into orphan drugs, people with rare diseases won't see the medical breakthroughs that patients with more common diseases have access to" said Brady.
The American Jobs Creation Act of 2003 will be considered by the full House of Representatives in the coming weeks. Congressional insiders are hopeful that the bill will pass the House before the targeted November 7th adjournment of Congress. |
