Mark Udall: “It is July. Half a year is gone. Next week we will go home to tell our constituents what the House has accomplished.…”

“It is July. Half a year is gone. Next week we will go home to tell our constituents what the House has accomplished. What will we say? If we are candid, we will have to say, not enough. We have not acted to protect patients' rights. We have not acted to reform campaign finance. We have not acted to help communities respond to growth and sprawl. We have not even done an easy thing like renewing the research and development tax credit. It expired last night. We need to do better. In fact, we need to make the credit permanent and broaden it. A temporary credit like the one that expired last night is a less effective credit because researchers cannot count on it. Making it permanent would end this uncertainty. A broader credit would benefit small businesses and high-tech entrepreneurial start-ups. Under the law that just expired, these firms did not benefit. We should go further and use the credit to promote collaboration between the Federal Government, the private sector and universities like the University of Colorado in my district. Half the year is gone, but half remains. We need to stop wasting time and missing deadlines. Let us pass this tax credit as soon as possible.”