Maria Cantwell: “They write: Growth in our high tech economy depends on solid R&D, and there is no good reason to delay making the credit…”

“They write: Growth in our high tech economy depends on solid R&D, and there is no good reason to delay making the credit permanent. A permanent tax credit will go a long way to providing the planners and investors the certainty that they need. Another document by that same coalition states that research jobs that are created by this R&D are quite significant; that more than 90 percent of the costs eligible for credits from the R&D tax credit go directly into salary and wages of researchers. So the only way for the company to go ahead and increase the credit is to get an R&D payroll. That is what we are talking about, getting the R&D payroll. We are sitting here discussing how we are going to move forward. I know my colleagues have a variety of ideas. We all probably have ideas that we think are an avenue or path within this tax proposal that will be effective. I know as somebody who has been in the private sector, has seen a company grow from 10 people to 1,000 people in a short time, the major focus of that company was in research and development. Let's turn our attention to those very companies that we think are the basis for our future. We still see great growth and opportunity in medical devices and research. We see great opportunities in biomedicines, as I mentioned, in nanosciences, in computing sciences, in supercomputing. We see great opportunity in energy technology, in the new energy economy we think will be so important.”