A bill to repeal the sunset of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 with respect to the affordable education provisions of such Act, and for other purposes.

Mr. President, today I will introduce legislation which is entitled the Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Program Extension and Reform Act of 2004. As I have explained briefly before, I do so because this program is going to be unveiled tomorrow at a ceremony in the Pennsylvania State Capitol attended by Secretary of the Interior Norton in addition to Governor Rendell and a number of other officials. While I would like to be present in Pennsylvania for the event, the Senate will be in session and there is important business to be conducted here. So in my absence there, I thought it appropriate to introduce this bill. I had planned to do so tomorrow, but there is a joint session of Congress in the morning and I am advised there may not be

morning business. So I am taking just a few moments of floor time to introduce the bill now.

The Bush administration has already announced the outline of the bill so I am not in any way preempting the administration by the introduction of this legislation. As I noted earlier, the administration had made this legislation available to me for introduction in conjunction with others in the Pennsylvania delegation, and I am pleased to do so because it will address a very serious problem for my State.

By far, Pennsylvania has the most extensive problem of any of the States in the Union, where we have some 250,000 acres which are in need of reclamation. Some 2,400 miles of streams are affected on our water supply because Pennsylvania has been so heavily mined. Shortly after I came to the Senate in the early 1980s, a little town in Pennsylvania named Centralia received national and international attention when a young man fell into a deep pit and a fire was burning there. It was a fire which resulted from an abandoned mine. For those, if any, who may be watching on C-SPAN, these fires rage underground burning unmined coal. This fire was raging. A large hole enveloped and the young man fell many feet below the surface of the terrain. Fortunately, he was rescued.

It was necessary to move the entire town at a very substantial cost borne in significant measure by the Federal Government, not entirely because homeowners could not fully recoup the losses of their houses. This bill will provide some $3 billion to take care of health and safety. It will be a reauthorization to the year 2018 on an authorization bill which is set to expire in September of this year. There will be a phase-out of payments ramped down until the year 2018 when it is projected that the problem will be solved. This bill will improve the flexibility for the States where they can make a choice of their projects and make a decision based on where they need to go on water quality.

It is obviously a very important matter for the environment, and environmental protection is a high priority in our country. I am pleased to see President Bush and his administration move ahead on this important item. It takes care of all of the smaller States with a minimum allocation of some $2 million. There is some assistance for the Combined Benefit Fund, which has been established for the benefit of the retired mine workers, where the health and benefit plans had been abrogated. We had legislation introduced and enacted several years ago, led by the Senator from West Virginia, Mr. Rockefeller, in conjunction with Senator Byrd, which I cosponsored, and we tried to provide for the retirement health benefits for the mine workers. This bill will make an allocation which will be helpful in that regard. It will not entirely satisfy the matter.

As I noted, this is President Bush's top priority in the Interior section of his budget. Secretary of the Interior Norton will tour some mines in Pennsylvania. Again, I express my regrets not being able to be with her and the Governor when the event will be held in the rotunda of the State Capitol at 11 o'clock tomorrow. Burt we intend to have a news conference here in Washington simultaneously with her announcement there.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I am introducing two education tax bills today. These bills will help us make permanent the $30 billion in education tax incentives that were contained in the 2001 tax bill.

The first bill will extend and make permanent the tuition deduction that was enacted in the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, Public Law 107-16, or EGTRRA. A lot of people think we don't spend enough money on education, but they also don't think we should make the 2001 tax cuts permanent. I don't know how they can justify that position. The education tax incentives in the 2001 tax bill have done a whole lot of good. The tuition tax deduction is available only through December 31, 2005. The cost of the provision for those four years was about $10 billion. So you can see that it was very expensive.

For parents struggling to send their children to college, the tuition tax deduction has been very important. Some of them probably wish it were set at a higher level, but at between $2,000 and $4,000 depending on your income, it is still a beneficial tax incentive for the middle class.

The second bill that I am introducing today will make the rest of the EGTRRA education tax provisions permanent, as well as the deduction for teacher classroom materials that was passed in the stimulus package of March 2002. That provision expired at the end of last year so it is very important that we enact it on a permanent basis and do so as soon as practicable.

I hope my colleagues will join me in sponsoring these bills and will agree to consider them and pass them in the Senate in the next month or two.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bills be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I am introducing two education tax bills today. These bills will help us make permanent the $30 billion in education tax incentives that were contained in the 2001 tax bill.

The first bill will extend and make permanent the tuition deduction that was enacted in the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, Public Law 107-16, or EGTRRA. A lot of people think we don't spend enough money on education, but they also don't think we should make the 2001 tax cuts permanent. I don't know how they can justify that position. The education tax incentives in the 2001 tax bill have done a whole lot of good. The tuition tax deduction is available only through December 31, 2005. The cost of the provision for those four years was about $10 billion. So you can see that it was very expensive.

For parents struggling to send their children to college, the tuition tax deduction has been very important. Some of them probably wish it were set at a higher level, but at between $2,000 and $4,000 depending on your income, it is still a beneficial tax incentive for the middle class.

The second bill that I am introducing today will make the rest of the EGTRRA education tax provisions permanent, as well as the deduction for teacher classroom materials that was passed in the stimulus package of March 2002. That provision expired at the end of last year so it is very important that we enact it on a permanent basis and do so as soon as practicable.

I hope my colleagues will join me in sponsoring these bills and will agree to consider them and pass them in the Senate in the next month or two.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bills be printed in the Record.