Chris Coons: “I come to the floor to speak about a real opportunity that we have this week in this Congress and in this Senate to come…”

“I come to the floor to speak about a real opportunity that we have this week in this Congress and in this Senate to come together in a bipartisan way to adopt measures that will actually create jobs and help grow our economy. This week we are considering tax extenders, a package of bills that can do a lot of good for the middle class, our economy, and our Nation. Together, various proposals in the tax extenders would spur investment in manufacturing, clean energy, and innovation, make it easier for families to afford a home or to send their children to college, open career pathways for veterans, and bring investments in jobs to communities in need. They recently passed by a voice vote out of the Finance Committee in the Senate, sending an important signal that we can come together, Democrats and Republicans, to move our economy forward. I mentioned innovation and manufacturing in particular as two of the policies this broader package helps promote. I would like to discuss two important bipartisan policies in this package, bills that have been rolled into the extenders package that can do a lot of good for startups and for innovative small manufacturers and for firms that invest heavily in the research and development that is needed to yield groundbreaking discoveries and steadily grow manufacturing employment in the United States. R&D, research and development, is the cornerstone of any competitive company, and I would suggest country.…”