Judd Gregg: “just to recap where we are, basically, the Senator from Arkansas has authored an amendment to end the ability to take…”

“just to recap where we are, basically, the Senator from Arkansas has authored an amendment to end the ability to take the depletion allowance for mining companies for that part of their mining activity which occurs on public land. Now, let's understand the facts here. A mining company comes along and it buys the right to mine on public land for the value of, I think, $2.50 an acre. For example, in 1995, ASARCO bought 349 acres for $1,745, which had 3 billion dollars' worth of assets on it. Public land, public land. And then a Danish company came along, and for $275 bought 110 acres, which had 1 billion dollars' worth of assets on it. Then a Canadian company came along and spent $9,000 for 1,800 acres which had 11 billion dollars' worth of assets on it. That, in and of itself, is a bit of an affront to the American taxpayer. That is not what we are debating here. We are debating an even greater affront--an even greater affront--because after they bought this land for $2.50 an acre, they then go out and take a depletion allowance against that land. Now, it is not against the equipment they are using to mine the land. They can deduct that. They have a right to do that. No, it is a depletion allowance against land which is publicly owned, taxpayers' land. It is not their land. It is taxpayers' land which they bought for $2.50 an acre, and now they get to take a depletion allowance which costs $400 million over the next 5 years.…”