John B. Breaux: “I am pleased today to join Mr. Hatch, Mr. Nickles, and Mr. Baucus in introducing the Software Export Equity Act. This…”

“I am pleased today to join Mr. Hatch, Mr. Nickles, and Mr. Baucus in introducing the Software Export Equity Act. This legislation is extremely important to maintaining the U.S. software industry's competitiveness and the growth of high-skilled, high-paying software industry jobs in the United States. The Software Export Equity Act has broad bipartisan support and was included in the fiscal year 1998 budget that the President submitted to Congress. I urge my colleagues to join with us in support of swift enactment of this legislation. The U.S. software industry is a vital and growing part of the U.S. economy, creating many new high-paying, high technology jobs in the United States. Much of the expansion of the software industry is due to the growth of export sales. The Software Export Equity Act clarifies the application of the foreign sales corporation [FSC] rules to exports of U.S. software. The FSC rules were enacted to address the competitive disadvantages faced by U.S. exporters vis-a-vis exports from other countries that have more favorable tax systems, particularly those that effectively exempt export sales from home country tax.”