Max Baucus: “I first commend my friend and colleague from Utah. I agree with him. I think it should be permanent. I urge my…”

“I first commend my friend and colleague from Utah. I agree with him. I think it should be permanent. I urge my colleagues to support the motion to instruct making it permanent. We will have a little more certainty and help in research and development in our country. It helps us be more competitive. I compliment him for offering that motion to instruct. I also speak in favor of the Stabenow motion to instruct with respect to the R&D tax credit which will be coming up shortly, essentially because we have to move ever more aggressively to invest more in research and development in our country. And the current temporary nature of the credit just makes no sense. The Senate-passed bill is a credit extension for 2 years. I remind my colleagues that the current credit is expired. It expired at the end of last year. We are now in February. The Senate bill extends it for calendar years 2006 and 2007, and the House bill just has 1 year, 2006. I am for more predictability, more certainty, especially with expect to the R&D tax credit. I also received a letter from the R&D Credit Coalition, a group representing 85 trade associations and more than 1,000 small, medium, and large companies. In the manufacturing sector alone, which performs nearly 60 percent of all private and industrialized R&D in the United States, there are 14 million manufacturing employees who get the benefit of this credit.…”