BROADBAND TAX BILL COULD BE ATTACHED TO TAUZIN-DINGELL
Bill promoting broadband tax credits could be included with Bell-friendly HR-1542 by House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.) and ranking Democrat Dingell (Mich.), House Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Upton (R-Mich.) said Tues. Referring to HR-267 by Rep. English, which has 189 bipartisan co-sponsors, Upton said English “has not given up” on the bill and he had spoken with English about it several times in recent weeks. Upton said Tauzin-Dingell could come up for House floor vote in next 2 weeks, and one possible compromise that might allow that to happen would be to include HR-267. “There may be a way to make that [HR-267] part of the package,” Upton said. Spokesman for Tauzin didn’t address possibility directly, saying only that HR-267 was under jurisdiction of House Ways & Means Committee, not Commerce.
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Upton’s comments came at news conference by 4 House Republicans urging Senate to act on economic stimulus legislation and agree to provisions in House bill that were tech-friendly. At that event, House Internet Caucus Co-Chmn. Goodlatte (R-Va.) said that in addition to tax depreciation and other provisions of House bill, he hoped Senate would keep in its package S-88 -- equivalent of English bill introduced by Sen. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) -- in measure following its addition in Senate Finance Committee, and that House conferees would permit it to be in final bill. He said its 10-20% tax credits for deployment of broadband to rural and underserved areas “would be of tremendous benefit to the high-tech industry and of tremendous benefit to hundreds of congressional districts.”
“The Senate has been dilly-dallying around for several weeks,” said Rep. Weller (R-Ill.), who organized news conference. On Tues., Senate Majority Leader Daschle (D- S.D.) acknowledged publicly that negotiations on centrist economic stimulus approach had broken down in Senate over $15 billion national security spending provision backed by Senate Appropriations Committee Chmn. Byrd (D-W.Va.).
After news conference Weller was dismissive of Senate efforts to add spending to bill. “Government spending is not going to stimulate the economy,” he told us. Rather, Congress should target unfair provisions of tax code. Weller, member of House Ways & Means Committee, said he supported broadband tax credit provision and was co-sponsor of English bill, but said when Ways & Means Committee Chmn. Thomas (R-Cal.) was assembling House bill he wanted to avoid provisions that targeted specific industries. By contrast, Weller said, Senate bill would support “the raising of buffalo and chicken manure.”
President Bush again urged Senate Mon. to pass economic stimulus package. On Tues., White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Bush had problem with $15 billion spending provision backed by Byrd: “The President believes that it’s important to spend money to promote homeland security… and he’s already entered into an agreement with the Congress to do just that. So the President thinks it is wrong to enter into an agreement on how much money should be spent, and as soon as the agreement is reached and is concluded, for then the people who want to spend more money to say, ‘Well, we're about to bust that agreement, we want to spend more money.'”
Daschle couldn’t offer any timetable on when floor vote could be held on economic stimulus legislation, blaming Republicans for blocking vote attempt 2 weeks ago. Upton Tues. said that with nation officially in recession, further delay was unacceptable: “We cannot allow Congress to adjourn this session without sending an economic stimulus bill to the President to sign.”