Small Business Jobs Tax Relief Act of 2010

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, this legislation is personal for me. We've watched our country come back from the brink in the fall of 2008. In my State of Oregon, helped by Recovery Act funds of about $6 billion, we've been able to stabilize and make some progress. Is it enough? Absolutely not. But I've had a steady parade of people coming to my office thanking me for the investment that was made in terms of infrastructure, in terms of health care, in terms of making sure that we didn't have layoffs of public employees.

Now we have a provision here that is an opportunity to focus on small business. It is a package, as the chairman mentioned, with two pieces. It's ironic that our friends are telling us that it's just not enough. These are small pieces, yet they were saying, on the other hand, the legislation we had that CBO has scored over 1.2 million jobs to as much as 2.8 million saved or created was too big. Well, we ought to be chipping away as we can on this. Having $30 billion for a small business lending fund, being able to provide a couple billion dollars of tax exclusion for small business capital formation are positive items.

You know, one of the things that strikes me as ironic is that our friends on the other side of the aisle ignore the fact that the Recovery Act legislation that we had previously, 42 percent of it, was for tax cuts and for preventing the impact of the alternative minimum tax from hitting middle and upper middle-income families. Every family in America which made under $250,000 a year got tax cuts last year, and they are getting tax cuts this year. We have tried tax cuts to help move things forward. Now, this is small business lending.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BLUMENAUER. This is part of an ongoing effort which is making a difference. The job losses peaked the month that President Obama took office--not his fault. They had been building for 22 months. Now we are making some progress. Is it enough? All of us agree that it is not, but I would suggest that dismissing this because they think it doesn't solve everything would be, I'm afraid, disingenuous. I don't think it's helpful.

I strongly urge the support of this legislation and then for us to continue with the task of rebuilding and renewing America, of reforming the Tax Code, and of coaxing the most out of these investments.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5486, the Small Business Jobs Tax Relief Act and H.R. 5297, the Small Business Lending Fund Act of 2010. These bills will help small businesses grow, create wealth in our communities, and create new jobs. As we often hear, small businesses drive our economy and create the most jobs.

I have heard from businesses across my district that have had trouble accessing capital to expand their businesses, to weather this economic storm that Oregon faces, and to add to their workforces. Thousands of jobs have been lost, millions of dollars of savings have evaporated, and dreams have been cast aside or deferred for far too many Oregon families.

The legislation that we will pass today will ease these challenges. The legislation establishes a $30 billion fund to boost lending to small businesses by community banks. To ensure that the additional funding is deployed, the recipient community banks will owe the US Treasury a variable dividend. The more they lend to small businesses, the less they will owe to the Treasury. If they fail to lend, then the dividend obligation increases.

The legislation also makes important tax changes that will benefit the small business community.

The legislation reduces capital gains taxes on the small business community. Under the Recovery Act, Congress excluded seventy-five percent of capital gains tax on the sale of small business stock during 2009 and 2010. This legislation continues and expands that policy by increasing the exclusion to one hundred percent for 2010 to 2012.

The legislation also improves the ability of small businesses to deduct start up costs. Under current law, a start up may deduct $5,000 of start up costs; this legislation will expand that deduction to $20,000. These costs include market surveys, initial advertisements, training costs and other costs associated with starting up a business.

Oregon is still struggling with a near record unemployment rate of 10.6 percent, a percentage point above the national average. In April 2010, over two hundred thousand Oregonians remained unemployed. It is imperative that we do all that we can to improve the economy and to put Oregonians back to work.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source