Chuck Grassley: “for this entire year I have come to the floor many times to tell my colleagues all the reasons this conference report is…”

“for this entire year I have come to the floor many times to tell my colleagues all the reasons this conference report is a must-pass piece of legislation. I have talked about trade and I have talked about tariffs. I have talked about the necessity of stopping outsourcing, lowering the cost of capital to our corporations so they can be more competitive in international competition, keeping jobs in America, reducing that cost of capital, as this bill does, by reducing the corporate tax rate for manufacturing in America--a direct incentive to produce here rather than producing overseas. Now, that is what the main part of this bill is all about, but it has some other aspects to it. I want to talk about $24 billion--$24 billion--that may be gone forever if we do not pass this bill; $24 billion to go into the highway trust fund. I do not serve on the committee that expends the money from the highway trust fund. I do serve on the committee, the Finance Committee, that provides how much gas tax we should have and other moneys that go into the highway trust fund. But for those who do deal daily with the highway trust fund, this $24 billion is the biggest single increase in highway trust fund income in over 6 years. Now, where does the $24 billion come from? It does not come from new taxes. Instead, we overhaul an outdated excise tax system to address our Nation's increased use of renewable fuels, such as ethanol.”