Pelosi Floor Speech on American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act

WASHINGTON, May 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke on the House floor this afternoon in support of H.R. 4213, the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act, which passed the House this afternoon.  Below are the Speaker's remarks. 

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the distinguished chairman for his recognition and also his job he has done to bring this bill to the floor today—the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act.  

"Mr. Speaker, it is our responsibility here, almost an ethical one really, to create jobs for the American people.  Equally important is to reduce the deficit.  So any of the pieces of legislation that we bring to the floor must strive to do both, to strike that balance.  I congratulate the chairman on this important legislation because it does both—creates jobs and helps to reduce the deficit. 

"If I had four words to describe the bill, it would be the same four words—it is a four letter word, I prepare you for that—jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, and jobs.  It's about jobs.  It's about summer jobs for young people.  It's about Build America Bonds jobs and infrastructure sector.  It's about jobs that are produced by our investments in R&D research and development tax credits in the legislation to have research into higher skill jobs and bring us to a different place technologically.  And that's very important.  It's about jobs. 

"It's about helping people who have lost their job through no fault of their own, and that's important to them individually.  But it is also important, as economists tell us, that unemployment insurance is the fastest way to inject demand into the economy, thereby creating jobs immediately.  These and other ways in this legislation, we are creating jobs.  And we are doing so in a way, as I say that unemployment insurance will create jobs, create a revenue stream, which will help to reduce the deficit.  The rest of the bill is all paid for in a fiscally sound way, and I congratulate the distinguished Chairman Levin for making that so. 

"I am particularly pleased about the benefits for our veterans, as we go into Memorial Day.  Other Members have mentioned the SGR, how important it is to have that provision in this legislation.  I, myself, wish it were permanent.  It is for 19 months. 

"We have to move to giving more certainty to our physicians and to our seniors.  This is about our seniors and their ability to keep their doctors that they have if they so wish.  And under this legislation, they will do so. 

 "But as I close, I just want to note that as we gather here on Memorial Day weekend, as we go forward, there is a very important provision in this bill that I hope all Members will take home and convey with our gratitude to our men and women in uniform.  And that is the issue of concurrent receipt.  We call it the veterans' disability tax repeal.  It is a technical term is concurrent receipt.  If you are a veteran and you are disabled, you will recognize this term.  And in this legislation, there is funding.  It is paid for.  There is funding to cover the concurrent receipt, to repeal of it for the next, to address it in a positive way for the next two years. 

"So it's about young people and summer jobs.  It's about building the infrastructure of America.  It's investing in research and development, the high technologies that will make us competitive and keep us number one.  It's about helping those who through no fault of their own have lost their jobs, but recognizing that that investment injects demand into the economy.  It creates jobs.  This is a bill that does just that in a fiscally sound way while honoring our veterans on this Memorial Day.

 "So I thank the gentleman for this very important legislation and urge my colleagues to take a big, strong aye vote to the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act.  It's named that for one very important reason.  In this legislation, which is job creating, it closes the loophole which has allowed businesses to ship jobs overseas.  Can you believe that we have a tax policy that enables outsourcing?  So if you have one thing to say about this bill to your constituents, you can say that today, you voted to close the loophole to ship U.S. jobs overseas and giving businesses a tax break to do so.  It is not right.  It will be corrected today. 

"Thank you, Mr. Levin.  I urge my colleagues to vote aye."       

SOURCE Office of the Speaker of the House