Melvin Watt: “I hope my colleagues will stay around, since they want to know the rationale for the 4-year extension versus the…”

“I hope my colleagues will stay around, since they want to know the rationale for the 4-year extension versus the permanent extension, and listen to the rationale, because there is both "practical rationale" and there is "substantive rationale." Let me deal with the practical reasons first. This moratorium that currently exists will expire the last day of this month if we do not act. The Senate has not done anything yet, and in many ways has made it clear that a permanent moratorium would be "dead on arrival" in the Senate. If the Senate is not going to act on a permanent moratorium, for the House to pass a permanent moratorium, send it to the Senate, have the Senate reject that permanent moratorium, runs the risk that time will run out before the month's end and the moratorium will run out before the month's end. Mr. Speaker, I have heard the argument that we ought to make this permanent because this is stifling innovation. That strikes me as being like the argument that we ought to not tax anything because people are going to quit making money because there are taxes on the money that they make.”