Floor Statements

Mr. President, today I wish to discuss an important provision in the tax conference agreement that relates to the 20- percent deduction for certain passthrough income for agricultural cooperatives.

I was pleased to see that the conference report fairly treats certain distributions from farmer cooperatives to their patron. This treatment will ensure that farmers will not see a tax increase at a time of depressed agricultural prices.

I would like to clarify a drafting change that occurred in moving from the Senate language to the conference report language. Specifically, section 199A(c)(1) provides that the term ``qualified business income'' does not include any ``qualified cooperative dividends,'' as defined by the bill. I would like to clarify that in this sentence, the terms ``qualified business income'' and ``qualified cooperative dividends'' are mutually exclusive and that the intent is that these terms are to be treated separately under sections 199A(a)(1) and (2), as they were under the Senate bill.

Also, I believe that the definition of ``qualified cooperative dividends'' includes ``per unit retains paid in money,'' PURPIMs, paid under 1382(b)(3).

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I come to the Senate floor to once again talk about the need to pass tax reform for hard-working Americans. The House has passed a bill, the Senate has passed a bill, and now, of course, we are working through the conference committee to get the very best product we can for the American people.

This tax relief is not just about reducing the tax burden on hard- working Americans and making sure they can keep more of their hard- earned dollars after tax, but it is also very much about economic growth. The tax relief package we are putting together that is coming together through the conference efforts, working to improve on both the House version and the Senate version, is designed to grow our economy. That is incredibly important because over the last decade, what we have seen are stagnant wages and income. So workers are working as hard as ever--harder than ever--but they are not seeing that growth in their paycheck. That is why we have to make this tax relief package pro- growth, so at the end of the day, that worker has a lower tax burden, but they also have a rising wage and more income. It is the combination of those two things that really--it is the rising tide that lifts all boats, if you will. That is how we generate that higher standard of living for workers and taxpayers across this great Nation.

So that is what we are working to do: tax relief, grow the economy, create more jobs--and create them here at home versus overseas--and higher wages and income.

These are just some of the statistics from the tax relief package that we put together. These are provided by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation as well as the White House Council of Economic Advisers. The objective is to grow wages by $4,000 over the 10-year scoring period, making sure our workers are seeing real wages. The estimate right now is that this tax bill is pro-growth and will generate, on average, $4,000 in higher wages, combined with an average tax cut of about $2,200. That is an average family--a family of four with median income.

It will generate almost 1 million new jobs, and that is what, of course, pushes wages higher. When you create more jobs, it is that demand for labor that pushes wages higher. That is how it works. We are talking about almost 1 million new jobs over the 10-year period and a 3.7-percent larger economy. So growing the economy, creating more jobs, and it is that demand for labor on the part of business that pushes wages and income higher.

When we look at the next chart I have, we see that we provide tax relief across all incomes. So it is really focused on lower income, middle class, making sure that, like I said, wage earners are saving more of their hard-earned dollars, but the effort is to cut taxes across all income groups, and that is what we do. It starts by taking the seven brackets we have and reducing them. It is just kind of simple math.

The House plan reduces the number of brackets to only three. We keep the seven different brackets. The reason for that is because the objective is to lower everyone's tax rate, and we are better able to do that by keeping the seven tax rates.

Some might say: You want to do simplification. We do want to do simplification, and we do tax simplification. There is no question that we do tax simplification because the complexity in calculating your taxes is calculating your taxable income, your adjusted gross income subject to taxes. That is the complicated part. Whether we have three different rates to apply to it or seven different rates to apply, depending on which bracket you fall into, that really doesn't add complexity.

So we keep the simplification intact while we make sure that we provide tax relief across all of the different tax brackets or tax rates. That is what we see in this second chart.

In addition, we keep or expand many of the tax deductions or tax provisions that are important to families, and that starts with the child tax. Well, I should say it actually starts with the standard deduction. We double, in essence, the standard deduction. For an individual, right now it is a little over $6,000 a person. We double that standard deduction to $12,000. For a married couple, you are talking over $24,000 that is covered under the standard deduction, no tax.

In addition, if you are an individual and you have dependents, either children or maybe taking care of a parent or something like that, you get $18,000 in that standard deduction. Why is that important? Because by doubling that standard deduction, we go from 7 out of 10 filers not itemizing to something like 9 out of 10 tax filers not itemizing. This means real simplification. It means doing your tax return on maybe just a one-page form. This means you are not only reducing rates but also greatly simplifying the Tax Code.

We keep other provisions that are very important for American families and, in fact, enhance them. For example, the child tax credit is doubled. So not only do we double the standard deduction, but we also double the child tax credit. We go from $1,000 to $2,000 per child. This is going to make a huge difference for families.

Also, for family businesses, family farms, and small business we double the estate tax, the death tax unified credit, and include the step-up in basis. It is hugely important to make sure you can transition a small business, farm, or ranch from one generation to the next.

To save for college, we enable the 521 savings accounts to continue for parents. Another very important one is we encourage businesses to provide paid family and medical leave by giving them a tax credit to partially offset an employee's pay while caring for a child or family member.

Other things we keep, in terms of deductions that are very important, again, to hard-working families are as follows:

The mortgage interest deduction. We make sure they can continue to deduct the interest on their home mortgage.

The deduction of charitable contributions. It is obviously very important for the greater good of our society that people can continue to contribute to charities they believe in and support and that they can deduct those charitable contributions.

The child and dependent care tax credits, the adoption tax credit, and the earned-income tax credit. We make sure people can continue to contribute to their 401(k) accounts on a basis that is tax-advantaged.

Then, medical expense deductions. Obviously, for our seniors, this is very important. For somebody who has a medical condition or an illness, being able to deduct those medical expenses is extremely important.

This is about making sure hard-working Americans can have not only tax relief but also the pro-growth aspect they see in the rising wages of incomes.

That is what I want to talk about in this third chart, which goes to supporting our businesses across this great country. Small business is the backbone of our economy. Small businesses, farms, and ranches are the absolute backbone of our economy. Small businesses typically are passthrough businesses, which means the income flows

through the business and is then taxed at the individual level. So part of the tax relief we are providing to small businesses comes from the reduction in the individual rates, as I have already gone through, because that income has flowed through.

Passthroughs can be a partnership, a sub-S corporation, a limited liability partnership, a limited liability corporation. These are all passthroughs. So when the income flows through that small business to the individual, because we have lowered the rates, that already provides a lower net tax on those small businesses and the people who own and work and invest in those small businesses.

The other thing we do is provide a 20-percent distribution deduction--a reduction in the taxable amount as far as income distributed by those businesses. We have gone through various iterations. We started at about 17 percent. We had hoped to move it higher. I think we will end up around 20 percent. What this means is, when income flows through that passthrough business, 20 percent is deducted before you calculate the income. For example, if you flow through $1,000, you would be taxed on the $800. Now, apply those lower tax rates I talked about, and you can see clearly that you significantly reduce that tax rate on these small businesses.

Why is that so important? It enables small businesses to keep more of their hard-earned dollars, to invest in equipment, to expand and grow their business. It enables them to hire more people, like perhaps these great young people we have here working as pages. It enables them to raise wages and income and to grow their business, or, for an entrepreneur, to maybe start up a business.

So it is those dollars that instead of going to taxes, stay with the business. They are invested in the businesses, create more jobs, more opportunity, and higher wages. That is the pro-growth aspect of this tax relief I mentioned at the outset.

The other way this tax is really pro-growth is also for larger C- corps bringing down that rate. Of course, smaller businesses use the C- corp as well, but by bringing down that rate, we make companies in America more competitive in the global economy. Companies that do business not only here in America but in other countries around the world have to decide where they are going to invest. Are they going to invest and grow their plant and operations here in America or are they going to grow their plant and operations somewhere else? Of course, if they grow here, they are hiring people here. They are paying wages and salaries here in America rather than in some other country. We want companies that do business internationally or globally growing their operations here, not overseas.

Right now, economists estimate that, currently, in excess of $2.5 trillion is held overseas by these companies and is not brought back to the United States and invested here because we have one of the highest tax rates in the world. Our corporate tax rate is one of the highest in the world.

So when we talk about the current 35-percent tax rate, companies look at that and say: Why would we bring back earnings from another country, say, Ireland--pick a country anywhere in the world. Why would we bring those earnings back and pay a really high tax, versus reinvesting overseas or somewhere else where the tax is much lower, and we can be more competitive?

This is what we are having to deal with, and that is why we lower the corporate rate--because that then creates the incentive to come back, invest dollars in the United States, and create more jobs here in America, and, in so doing, as they bring that revenue back, which is called repatriation, they generate tax revenues which help us provide more tax relief for hard-working Americans.

So that is what I mean. That is the two-fer aspect of this tax relief plan. It is making sure individuals have real tax relief so they keep more of what they earned, but it is also about making sure they earn more, that their wages and income grow, and that there are more jobs and opportunities here in America. That is absolutely the focus of this tax relief plan and what we are working to achieve.

Both the House and Senate have passed versions of this tax bill. We are now working to get the very best product we can through the conference committee. We are making real progress, and we need to continue to work together and get this tax relief done. We have been working on it for a long time. A lot of effort has gone into it. It is time now to finish it up this week, to vote on it, and to get this tax relief passed before the end of the year so, as Americans go into 2018, they know they are able to keep more of their hard-earned tax dollars and we also have a vibrant economy, where there is going to be more jobs and opportunity and higher income and wages.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to legislative session for a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that S. Res. 351 be star printed with the changes that are at the desk.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate

proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 356, submitted earlier today.

Mr. President, I know of no further debate on the measure.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the preamble be agreed to and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10 a.m., Tuesday, December 12; further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed; further, that following leader remarks, the Senate proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the Grasz nomination; further, that the Senate recess from 12:30 p.m. until 2:15 p.m. to allow for the weekly conference meetings; finally, that all time during recess, adjournment, morning business, and leader remarks count postclosure on the Grasz nomination.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. President, I am pleased to follow my esteemed colleague from West Virginia. I wish to join her in her comments and emphasize what she emphasized so well--that this really is all about hard-working taxpayers across this country, not just in terms of making sure they keep more of their hard-earned dollars after taxes but making sure that their wages and income go up. Over the last decade, we have seen real stagnation in terms of wages and income. So as we work on this tax package, we want to make sure that across all income groups, we see real tax relief.

The other aspect of this bill is that it is pro-growth. It is about stimulating investment across this country by entrepreneurs, by innovators, by small companies--and, with big companies, bringing money from overseas back home to America, to create jobs in America. As we create those jobs, that competition for labor pushes wages and salaries higher. So it really is a two-for. It is about real tax relief for hard-working Americans, and it is about making sure that their wages and income go up.

These are just some of the estimates that have been put forward so far as to the impact that this tax relief package will have. According to the Council of Economic Advisers, there will be $4,000 in higher wages. So that is what I am talking about. It is not just tax relief; it is about higher wages. For an average family of four--median income, average family of four--there will be a savings of $2,200 in taxes. That is from the nonpartisan Tax Foundation.

So it is the combination of both of those things: higher wages, lower taxes.

It comes from creating more jobs. The estimate is, again from the Council of Economic Advisers, almost 1 million more jobs. It is those jobs that not only create opportunity, but that competition for workers is what pushes those wages higher.

Also, a 3.7-percent larger economy--that larger economy is a very important consideration, as well, because by growing the base, even with lower taxes, you generate more revenue, more revenue for the government to invest in our priorities and to reduce the debt and deficit over time. Of course, we have to find savings where we can, but at the same time we have to have economic growth to address debt and the deficit, and that is exactly what we create, not just through tax relief but the combination of tax relief and the regulatory relief that we have done through the course of this year. It is that regulatory relief and that tax relief that really empower our small businesses across the country, which are really the backbone of our economy. We are talking farmers, ranchers, small businesses of all kinds. We are talking entrepreneurs. We are talking innovators. We are talking about the job creators in this country, creating more jobs and opportunity, and the wage earners and the workers benefiting through lower taxes and higher wages.

This next chart shows that the tax relief really comes across all income groups. That is something that obviously has been discussed, and that is what we are doing here. We are making sure that across every single income group, there is a tax cut. So the effort is to focus on lower income, middle-income workers, but to make sure that there is tax relief across all groups.

The way we focus on lower income workers is by increasing the standard deduction. We more than double the standard deduction from about $6,000 today to $12,000 for an individual. So for a married couple, that is $24,000. For a single individual who has dependents whom he or she is taking care of, whether those are children or maybe a parent or a relative, it is $18,000 for an individual.

Now, with that higher standard deduction, we will find that 9 out of 10 people will not itemize. They will not itemize. That means their tax return will be one page. They can complete it on one page. It is simple, easy, and then they can send it in.

That is 9 out of 10 filers with this new higher standard deduction. It not only makes sure we provide relief to low- and middle-income taxpayers, but it makes it much simpler to fill out that tax return.

At the same time, we keep other deductions and exemptions that are very important to people. For example, the child tax credit is doubled. The child tax credit goes from $1,000 to $2,000. We are doubling the child tax credit. To help with college, we make sure people can open a 529 savings account so they can save money for college and for the education of their young people.

Businesses will be encouraged to provide paid family and medical leave by receiving a tax credit to partially offset the pay of an employee who is caring for a child or a family member.

Other important deductions that we continue--the mortgage interest deduction. That is very important. We continue the deductibility of the mortgage interest on your home. We continue that very important and very popular tax deduction. We continue the deductibility of charitable contributions. For charitable organizations that need those contributions to continue to fund their important activities, we continue that tax deductibility. We continue the child and dependent tax care credit, the adoption tax credit, the earned-income tax credit to help families with children, working families with children. We continue the 401(k) retirement deduction. That was one that had been discussed, and there was concern expressed that that might be reduced, and we didn't. We continue the deductibility of medical expenses. For example, seniors or others who may have a lot of medical expenses can continue to deduct the cost of those medical expenses.

In all these cases, we have worked very hard to make it simpler and to make sure that for low- and middle-income workers, we are providing that tax relief.

This next chart goes to what we call passthroughs. As I mentioned earlier, the heart and soul of our economy are small businesses. We want to make sure that we are providing tax relief for small businesses across this country so that they can invest, create more jobs, and hire more workers.

For larger businesses or businesses that are multinational, what we are doing is making our Tax Code competitive. What that does is that creates an incentive for the larger companies to bring capital back home that is currently overseas, invest it in America, and create jobs in America. That is called repatriation.

Leading economists estimate that there is more than $2.5 trillion that U.S. corporations have overseas that they would bring back home, bring back to America with this tax relief, and invest in America. That is all about them building plants at home, creating jobs at home, creating American jobs, rather than investing somewhere else in the world. That not only creates jobs and more opportunity--again, that push for higher wages and income--it also brings back revenue that helps pay for this tax cut for the individuals and for smaller companies as well. When they come back and invest here, that generates tax revenue in America rather than somewhere else, in some other country.

We want the larger multinationals to come back and invest in America. For our smaller companies, our passthroughs, we want to make sure they have the ability, through regulatory relief and tax relief, to expand and grow their businesses. That is what you see here.

With the work we have done for small businesses across every income group, small businesses are getting a tax break. The reason it is done across income groups is that passthroughs are taxed at the individual level. So whether it is a sub S corporation or a partnership or a limited liability partnership or a limited liability corporation,

the income earned by those small businesses is passed through to the owners and the investors, and then it is taxed at that individual level. So what we show is, across the board, those small businesses are keeping more of their money so they can put it in plant and equipment rather than send it to the Federal Government.

I am going to go through some of the things that we have either kept or added for small businesses, particularly some, for example, in the ag area, which is very important to my State, but things that we have kept that really help all small businesses. They include, first, lowering the rate. We start by lowering the rate. Across every income group, we lower that tax rate.

The House plan has four different tax rates. We have seven different tax rates, which compares to the seven that we have right now, but we drop them all. We reduce each one of those rates. That is important to understand because that is the objective. We want to make sure that tax relief is provided across the board.

There has been some discussion about, well, does that create more complexity in terms of having seven different tax rates the way we do today? Really, it doesn't. The complexity in determining what you have to pay in taxes comes from calculating your taxable income. That is what we have greatly simplified, as I described earlier. By keeping the seven tax rates, we make sure we provide an income break across every different income group, every different business group. Again, this is about providing tax relief. It starts with lowering, obviously, those rates for businesses.

We also provide other very important incentives for investment. Remember, this is about pro-growth investment to grow the economy and increase wages. One of those is expensing. That is very important. When a business puts out cash to invest in plant and equipment, they are out those dollars. If they can't deduct that expense up front, it is a lot harder for them to make that expenditure.

For the first 5 years, we provide full expensing. That is incredibly important. Whether it is a farm in my State of North Dakota or a small business in my colleague's State of North Carolina, if they can write off that expense--that plant, cattle, equipment, whether it is new farm machinery or any kind of business equipment--then they are able to make that investment and grow their business.

We not only provide that full expensing for the first 5 years--with a stepdown over the next 4--on a permanent basis, we keep section 179 expensing, which is a very popular investment incentive for small business. That ensures that small businesses can expense up to $1 million a year in plant and equipment, and it doesn't start phasing out until they get over $2.5 million in expenditures. On a permanent ongoing basis, that provides incredible certainty for the millions of small businesses across this country to keep investing--buying new plants, new equipment, growing their business--and that is the absolute backbone of our economy and job creation.

Those are the kinds of provisions that make such a huge difference for our companies and that we have included in this tax relief package.

Where are we in the process? We have moved our bill through the Senate. The House has moved their bill through the House. Now we are headed for conference. We need to continue to work to get the best possible product and pass it on the floor, and our objective is to get that done before the end of the year.

This process is important. I am going to mention a couple of things in closing here that show the importance of this process--moving it through the Senate, moving it through the House, and working in conference committee to get the very best product we can for the American people.

For example, as we have moved this package through Senate, one of the things we added that I think is incredibly important is that you can deduct up to $10,000 in property tax. On your homestead, if you have property taxes up to $10,000, we have now included that in the Senate package. That is a very popular deduction that is important to many people. We added it in the Senate. The House has it. This is going to come out of conference and include that property tax deduction. I think it is very important and very helpful to getting a good tax relief package.

Another one that I worked on directly is making sure that car dealers and implement dealers--these are small businesses across the country-- can continue to deduct the interest on their floor plan. So for their cars on the lot, the inventory that you go and look at when you buy a car, or, if they are in the ag business, the tractors and the equipment they have--they can deduct that interest. That is incredibly important for them to be able to do business. That has been added as we have advanced this package.

Another provision is IC-DISC. It sounds complicated, but it is simply an incentive for companies that will export. Big companies do a pretty good job of exporting, and they have a lot of ways to do it, but for small companies, when they are making product in our country and are trying to send it to Australia or somewhere else, that is a tough proposition. We give them help through that IC-DISC program. Again, that is another example of how we targeted some of these tax deductions to small businesses or kept some of these programs that really help small businesses and, again, make this package as pro-growth as we possibly can.

At the end of the day, it is about keeping more of your hard-earned dollars after taxes, but it is also about growing this economy. Growing this economy is the rising tide that lifts all boats. That is what we are about. We can sit here and not do something like that and say: OK, business as usual. That is not what the American people want. The American people sent us here to make changes, real changes that are going to help us grow our economy, create more jobs, and create more opportunity; that are going to do more for border security; that are going to strength our military and strengthen law enforcement, the rule of law in this country; that are going to improve our healthcare. So these are the kinds of things we have to get done. These are the kinds of things the American people have sent us here and said: Hey, we need to get going on these things. That is exactly what we are doing.

I certainly call on all of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join together and get this done, get this tax relief done for the American people, and get it done before the year end.

With that, I will defer to my esteemed colleague from North Carolina.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise to discuss the tax relief bill, which the Senate is working very hard to try to pass. I brought some charts with me to show the impact this bill will have in terms of reducing the tax burden for hard-working American taxpayers and also helping to grow our economy.

It is important to understand this is not just about making sure American taxpayers can keep more of their hard-earned wages and income but also this is about making sure we have a growing economy, that we have more jobs, and that we have rising wages and rising income for American workers. Here are just some of the statistics that show that. These statistics are according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation and also the Council of Economic Advisers. What you see from this first chart is, this tax relief package is about real economic growth, not just making sure our taxpayers get a tax cut but about growing our economy. This top number, which comes from the Council of Economic Advisers, is $4,000 that workers, on average, would receive from the economic growth created by the combination of reducing the regulatory burden, which is something we have been working on all year with the administration--reducing that regulatory burden--and combining that then with tax relief to generate more

economic growth. As I said, according to the Council of Economic Advisers and the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, it also generates almost 4 percent in terms of a larger economy.

So this is about reducing the tax rates but growing the base and making sure, as I said, there are not only more jobs but also rising wages and income from that demand for labor that comes with a growing economy, that comes with investment, and that comes with job creation. For an average family of four, the tax cut is about $2,200 under the Senate bill. It generates about 925,000 new jobs over the scoring period and, as I said, almost a 4-percent larger economy.

This next chart shows that across all income groups, across every income group, you see tax relief, and that is because we start by reducing the tax rates. So across the board, we work to make sure you are applying a lower tax rate to whatever income cohort you are talking about. So new rates are 10 percent, 12 percent, 22 percent, 24 percent, 23, 35, and a 38.5-percent top rate, but when you combine the lower rates along with an increased standard deduction--we increase the standard deduction. We about double it, from around $6,000 to about $12,000 and $24,000 for married filers, $18,000 for a single filer with a dependent. The result is, across every income group, we reduce the amount of tax they have to pay.

At the same time, we preserve and expand many of the current tax provisions that are important to our American families. For example, the child tax credit, which is something the Presiding Officer has worked on very diligently, would be doubled. We double the child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000. More family-owned small businesses and family farms will be protected from the death tax because we double the exemption amount. Right now, the unified credit is about $5.5 million, and we double that to more than $11 million so that if you have a small business or a farm, you are able to pass that from one generation to the next without being forced to sell it. To help save for college, expecting parents will be able to open a 529 savings account, again, helping families with children. Businesses will be encouraged to provide paid family and medical leave by giving them a tax credit to partially offset an employee's pay while caring for their child or for a family member.

We do all of this while maintaining tax deductions that are important to many Americans. These include continuing the mortgage interest deduction--very important for homeowners--continuing the deductibility of charitable contributions to ensure that charities continue to receive contributions that are so important to them, continuing the child and dependent care tax credits, the adoption tax credit, the earned income tax credit, and the deferred treatment for 401(k)s and individual retirement accounts. That was something that came up earlier. There was some concern about reducing the limits on what could be contributed to retirement accounts on a tax-deferred basis, and we continue those levels so individuals can continue to save for retirement. We also continue the medical expense deduction, which is important to seniors who have significant medical expenses.

The resulting increase in aftertax income will allow families more financial freedom and empower them to save for their retirement or perhaps for their children's education. Considering 50 percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck and over one-third of all families are just $400 away from serious financial difficulty, this is much needed relief, and it is certainly overdue.

This tax relief is also very important for small businesses, so our third chart really goes to small business, which of course is the backbone of our economy. In my State, farming and ranching is incredibly important, but across the country, the backbone of our economy is small businesses. Ninety percent of the businesses in America are small businesses, and what this chart shows is that for passthroughs, which typically small businesses are passthroughs, that there is income relief again at all income levels. Remember how these passthrough small businesses work. Whether you have a sub S corporation, a limited liability corporation, a limited liability partnership, or a regular partnership, all these different types of small businesses are passthroughs, meaning the income flows through the business entity and is taxed at the individual level. That is why it is very important that we show that across the board, at all different income levels, small businesses benefit from this tax reduction.

By reducing the maximum tax rate for sole proprietorships, partnerships, S corporations, and all the other passthrough entities I just mentioned, we are creating greater economic growth and opportunities as small businesses reinvest in their companies, reinvest in their employees, and reinvest in their communities. For many small businesses, equipment, business supplies, and other capital expenditures are very costly, and it cuts into their profit margin. So this is about helping them make those investments that enable them to grow their businesses, increase wages, and hire more employees.

Our tax bill also allows businesses to immediately expense or write off the cost of new investments, effectively reinvesting in our small businesses and driving economic growth, job creation, and higher wages for American workers.

We increase the amount allowed under section 179, something very important to small businesses, which essentially allows them to expense or write off their investments. This is a hugely important expensing provision for farmers, for ranchers, and really for small businesses across the board, and we enhance that section 179 expensing.

All the while, we work to make sure we have stable government revenues through a broader tax base, a growing economy, and a more efficient tax system. That means we encourage investment, and it means the revenues that come to government come from a larger tax base and lower rates. So, individually, the hard-working citizens pay less of their earnings and businesses pay less as a percentage of their revenues, but because you have that economic growth--you have that rising tide that lifts all boats--government actually has more and stable revenues from economic growth not from higher taxes. That is some of what I showed in that first slide; that this is about growing our economy and driving that economic growth.

The bill ensures that we are competitive in the global economy. In fact, as a result of the tax relief and tax reform we are undertaking, there is something like $2.5 trillion that is currently overseas that now has an incentive to come home and is invested here at home in our businesses, creating jobs in America and expansion of America's economy rather than having that money parked overseas or invested overseas.

So, for all these reasons, I urge our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to work to pass this tax relief, this tax reform. This really is about making sure hard-working American taxpayers decide what to do with their hard-earned dollars. Again, I ask that all of us work together, pass this bill through the Senate, get it into conference with the House, and get the very best tax relief product we can for the American people and that we get it done before the end of the year.

With that, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I am very pleased to have the opportunity to speak today on the floor of the Senate after my esteemed colleague from the State of Georgia. My colleague is the chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, and I just want to express my appreciation for his commitment and his work on behalf of all of our great veterans.

Like him, I rise today to speak in tribute to our veterans and men and women in uniform and all that they do for us.

This weekend at events across the country, we will pay tribute to the fine men and women who have served in our Nation's Armed Forces. Every day--but especially on Veterans Day--we honor these soldiers who have left the comforts of home and family to defend our freedoms and fight for our way of life.

Our freedoms have been secured by the sweat and sacrifice of courageous men and women who, throughout our history, have bravely done what was needed to protect our great Nation. We also recognize that those who serve do not serve alone. We appreciate, too, the sacrifices of the families and the loved ones who have supported our veterans in their service.

This Veterans Day, we will honor military members from our ``greatest generation'' to those men and women fighting in the War on Terror today. These Americans understand best the words of President Ronald Reagan when he said:

Freedom is never more than one generation away from

extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the

bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on

for them to do the same.

These men and women who have fought for and protected our country have given so much, and we cannot do enough to thank them, whether they returned from Active military duty 7 days ago or seven decades ago.

Although we can never repay our debt of gratitude, one of the most tangible ways we recognize our veterans' service is by providing these men and women with quality healthcare and support services, including education and work opportunities. With that debt in mind, let me briefly outline some initiatives that we have been working on to provide for our veterans. Congress has passed significant veterans bills this year, including legislation that holds the VA accountable and ensures that VA employees are putting our veterans first and legislation that updates and modernizes the VA's benefit claims and appeals process, reducing wait times for our veterans.

Additionally, one of my top priorities is ensuring that our veterans have access to healthcare options closer to their homes and their families.

This includes improving veterans' access to services under the Veterans Choice Program and building on the success of the Veterans Care Coordination Initiative at the Fargo VA Medical Center in my home State. This effort has decreased the wait time for scheduling an appointment under Veterans Choice from 24 days a year ago to 5 or 6 days at present. This initiative can serve as a model to help address delays in scheduling appointments through the Veterans Choice Program across the Nation.

We invited Secretary Shulkin, from North Dakota, to see this firsthand, and our Veterans Care Coordination Initiative has since been expanded to

the VA facility in Helena, MT, as well. We believe it will be expanded to other locations across the country.

We also passed an extension of the Veterans Choice Program earlier this year and secured $2.1 billion in additional funding for the program. This gives us time to work with the VA on the next phase of the program. In addition to Veterans Choice, we are working to improve local access to long-term care for our veterans.

We secured a commitment from Secretary Shulkin to work with us on the Veterans Access to Long Term Care and Health Services Act. We have now introduced this legislation in the Senate, and a companion bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives. The legislation would remove burdensome redtape that prevents nursing homes and other healthcare providers from accepting veteran patients. Our bill allows the VA to enter into provider agreements with qualified healthcare and extended care facilities, bypassing complex Federal contracting requirements. This will give veterans more options to access long-term care services closer to their homes, their families, and to their loved ones.

In addition, earlier this year, Congress passed--and the President signed into law--the forever GI bill, which improved and extended veterans' access to education and workforce opportunities. This is part of our efforts to ensure that we are supporting our veterans as they transition back to civilian life and work here at home. These are just a few examples of our efforts to ensure our veterans have the resources and the support they have so richly earned. While we cannot say thank you enough, in this way, we can honor their courage and their sacrifice.

We honor Veterans Day because we have the greatest veterans in the world who have committed themselves to protect our Nation, and in so doing, they have transformed this country into the greatest the world has ever known. May God continue to bless our veterans and this great Nation that they have been protecting and make sure we honor the selfless service of all our men and women in uniform, of all our veterans, not only on Veterans Day but every day.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I rise once again today to talk about how we are working to reform our outdated Tax Code and to provide much needed tax relief to our Nation's small businesses and to hard-working families and ranchers. We are working to not only provide hard-working taxpayers with tax relief but also to strengthen our economy and to stimulate job creation.

Along with the regulatory relief we have already provided and are working to continue to provide, this tax relief is all about a growing economy, more jobs, and higher wages for hard-working Americans and then making sure that they not only keep more of their earnings after tax but that they see growing wages due to a stronger economy that is so important after the last decade of stagnant wages and income. It is important to understand that this tax relief is both. It is absolutely about lowering the tax burden, but it is also about moving wages and incomes higher. That is the rising tide that lifts all boats in our country.

Today, the House of Representatives passed a budget resolution that the Senate sent them last week, so now we have completed the first step in terms of enacting pro-growth tax reform that, as I said, will provide tax relief to millions of middle-class families who have been struggling to get ahead over the past decade.

Today, I want to focus on how our tax proposal will reduce the tax burden on small businesses. Small businesses make up 96 percent of all employers in my State and over 90 percent of the businesses in the country. Over 90 percent of the businesses in this country are small businesses.

Earlier this week, we had a very productive meeting with the President to talk about our priorities for tax relief, and I specifically highlighted to him the importance of ensuring that tax reform works for our small businesses. When you talk about small businesses, you are talking about farmers and ranchers. As I said, 90 percent of all the businesses in this country are small businesses. So we are working with the administration and with the House to enact tax reforms that will enable American families to keep more of their hard- earned money and, as I said, empower our small businesses to invest and grow.

Our effort is about growing our economy and regaining our economic competitiveness in a global economy. Our Tax Code needs to ensure that our small business owners and entrepreneurs can compete in that global economy.

Small businesses, as I said, are the engine that drives our economy. They are the backbone of our economy. Small businesses create more jobs and employ more people than major corporations. They are the heart and soul of Main Streets across America. These businesses earn the majority of all business income in the United States and employ over half the private sector workforce in 49 out of 50 States. They employ over half of the private sector workforce in 49 of our 50 States.

Over the past month, I have hosted tax reform roundtables across North Dakota to hear directly from our job creators--from our State's small businesses, from our ag leaders, from our farmers, and from our ranchers. What are their priorities when we talk about tax relief and tax reform?

Our tax blueprint supports those small businesses throughout the country by promoting job creation, economic growth, and, as I said earlier, global competitiveness. We propose to do this in a number of ways, but the biggest and most impactful thing is that we are lowering the tax burden. It needs to be tax relief.

Right now, for our small businesses, the marginal tax rate can reach as high as 44.6 percent. Think about that. Almost half of their income is going to Federal income tax. That is nearly twice the average rate of the rest of the industrialized world. So here we are trying to compete with that high tax rate--almost double compared to the average rate of the rest of the industrialized world.

By reducing the maximum tax rate for sole proprietorships, partnerships, and S corporations to 25 percent, we are creating greater economic growth and opportunity as small businesses reinvest in their businesses, in their employees, in their communities, and generate job growth.

Additionally, many small businesses, including farmers and ranchers, do not have access to the equity they need to operate, instead relying heavily on debt financing to fund their businesses. They go to the bank and borrow. This is particularly true for new and beginning enterprises, including new startups in technology--not just farming and ranching and traditional businesses but businesses across the board.

Our Tax Code needs to incentivize our Nation's entrepreneurs to start their business, and we need to make sure they can get access to capital. They need to be able to get access to that capital, but when they do, by and large, they are going to the bank and borrowing. That means they have to pay interest on that debt. So it is very important for small businesses that the interest on that debt be deductible. That is a huge cost, particularly for our farmers and ranchers. They don't have opportunities to float equity. They don't raise equity for their farming operation when they need to buy a tractor or a combine or you name it. They have to go to the bank and borrow.

So the deductibility of that interest expense to them is absolutely vital in their interests. That is true with small businesses across the board. When you look at small businesses in your community, they go to the bank and they borrow, and that interest cost is a big part of their business expense. They need to be able to continue to deduct it.

In the framework that we have proposed, another very important issue is being able to expense investments. If you really want to trigger growth, you encourage that investment. So the tax reform framework or proposal that we have put forward allows, in the first 5 years, full expensing of new investments. That is very stimulative to our economy. It is very pro-growth.

The other piece that I think is very important here is that we keep the section 179 expensing longer term. I think,

as we proposed it now, we would have expensing in the first 5 years-- full expensing. That is great. That is, as I say, stimulative to the economy. But beyond that, then we need to make sure that section 179 expensing is there so that small businesses, farmers, ranchers, and others will know that they are going to continue to be able to expense their investment in new plants and new equipment. That is what keeps those small businesses growing. That is what keeps them hiring more people. That is what creates more jobs, and that is what pushes wages and income higher.

Also, we need to simplify and streamline the Tax Code. Right now, the Tax Code is nearly 70,000 pages long--talk about being difficult and complex. Americans, right now, currently spend 6 billion hours a year complying with that Tax Code. That is ridiculous. Can you imagine 6 billion hours a year just to figure out how to pay your taxes? So here is somebody who wants to pay their taxes. They spend all that time and all that effort just to figure out how much they have to pay. Obviously, we can do a lot better than that.

Our goal through tax reform is to allow the vast majority of Americans to file their tax return on a single simple page. I will mention that again. I think it is important. Our goal is for the vast majority of Americans, in essence, to file their tax return on one page and to make it easier to pay your taxes, to figure out what you owe, and to take away all that stress and all that difficulty in just trying to pay your taxes.

Many economists agree that high business taxes reduce wages to workers, raise costs for consumers, and reduces returns on retirement savings. Maintaining these high tax rates do nothing to improve the fairness of our system. They only punish everyday, hard-working, tax- paying citizens and reduce economic opportunity in America.

I will conclude on the same point that I started with, and that is by saying that there are two objectives here. It is not just to simplify and reduce the tax burden, so that people have more of their earnings in their pocket after paying taxes, but the other is to make sure they earn more and that we move wages and income higher. If you look at the growth rate in our economy over the last decade, it has struggled, in essence, to get to 2 percent. But compare that to the period from World War II to the present. Over that longer period, we averaged 3.3 percent. We want to get that growth rate back up.

We started to get that growth rate back up by reducing the regulatory burden. Over the course of this year, the administration and this Congress have done a lot to reduce the regulatory burden. Our growth rate has ticked up in the most recent month to 3.1 percent, the highest it has been in a long time. So what we want to do is to combine that regulatory relief and tax relief and get that higher growth rate. We also want to add an infrastructure package. When you put those things together, what do you get? You get more jobs, higher wages, higher income, and a higher standard of living for hard-working American citizens across this great Nation. That is the objective. That is what we are trying to do.

We all need to work together, and our goal is to get that done before the end of the year.

With that, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I am pleased to follow the distinguished Senator from South Carolina and appreciate very much his remarks and how he does such a good job of really explaining why this tax relief is so very important.

I rise today to talk about the need for tax relief and how our Tax Code is now both outdated, very complex, and again, as my esteemed colleague from South Carolina said, it is past time to provide tax relief for our Nation's families, farmers, ranchers, and small businesses. That is what passing this legislation is all about-- providing much needed tax relief for our hard-working citizens. As I said, it is past time to modernize our outdated American Tax Code and bring it into the 21st century. We need to do so to ensure that American businesses can compete on the global stage; it is a global economy, and we must compete. And it is very much focused on our efforts to bring tax relief to middle-class families, who have been struggling to get ahead and stay ahead over the last decade.

As I said, the Senate this week is taking the first step--a very important step--toward enacting pro-growth tax reform by passing a budget resolution that provides the path toward improving our economic growth and putting more money back into the pockets of hard-working American people. Voting for this budget will enable us to move forward to enact that tax relief, again, not only for our families, but for farmers, ranchers, and small businesses across this country. Small business is the absolute backbone of our economy, and that is where the vast majority of jobs are created.

It is very important to understand and realize that this is not just about tax relief--making sure that, after taxes, hard-working Americans keep more of their money in their pocket, again, as so eloquently detailed by the Senator from South Carolina--but it is also about growing our economy. This is also pro-growth. This is about stimulating economic growth, meaning more jobs and, as the businesses that create those jobs invest the capital, create those jobs as they compete for labor, that also moves wages and income higher. So think about it. For that hard-working American, it is not only about reducing his or her tax burden, it is about increasing their wages and income. That is the rising tide that lifts all boats, so it is both. It is both about improving wages and income, as well as reducing the tax burden.

The recently released tax blueprint proposes sweeping tax reform, tax relief that will benefit working families and small businesses across the country while promoting job creation, economic growth, and global competitiveness.

This country was built on hard work by individuals and families who strive each and every day to make ends meet, provide for their loved ones, and plan for retirement, but this past decade has seen too many families struggling to get by. The current Tax Code is complex; it is riddled with loopholes. That not only does nothing to help our hard- working families keep more of their money, it makes it very difficult to even fill out their tax returns.

Tax relief will help individuals and families in my State of North Dakota

and across the country to get ahead by generating new jobs through economic growth, as I said, while also lowering their overall tax burden so that they keep more of their paycheck. For example, by doubling the standard deduction, we will eliminate taxes on the first $12,000 earned by an individual and $24,000 earned by a married couple, effectively establishing a 0-percent tax rate up to $24,000. This means that the nearly 81 percent of North Dakotans who claim the standard deduction--again, my State--will see a significant increase in their take-home pay, and that is true across the country.

Our tax framework aims to generate greater opportunities for small business owners and farmers, helping them to become more competitive. Remember, we all compete in a global economy now, so how do we help our farmers, our ranchers, our small businesses become more competitive?

Small business represents nearly 96 percent of all employers in my State, and while we have fostered a business-friendly environment in North Dakota, the Federal Tax Code continues to place undue burdens on our small businesses that operate across North Dakota and across the other 49 States. That includes our farmers and ranchers, who can pay a marginal tax rate as high as almost 45 percent, which is nearly twice the rate of the rest of the industrialized world.

The tax framework follows an example that we have set, and the tax framework that we have proposed will restore economic opportunity and, as I said, enact a pro-growth tax code for our country.

Last week, I hosted tax reform sessions and roundtables across North Dakota to hear directly from our small businesses and also from ag leaders, our farm leaders, on their priorities. I want to talk about some of those priorities in agriculture for just a minute. Agriculture is No. 1 in North Dakota. We are a huge energy State, as well, but agriculture is and always will be No. 1 in our State. So when we talk about tax relief, we need to talk about tax relief for our farmers and our ranchers.

The right tax reform will help our farmers continue to provide the highest quality, lowest cost food supply in the world, which benefits every single American every single day. So that includes reducing the tax burden on these hard-working farmers and across the board for small businesses which, as I said, are the job creators in our economy, in our country. The biggest way we do that is to drop that rate for small business to 25 percent. That is a huge step forward. It not only makes our farms, ranches, and small businesses across the country more competitive, but it generates the economic growth that is so important for job creation and higher wages.

Another important issue is, in this framework, we eliminate the death tax or the estate tax. The death tax can result in double and sometimes triple taxation of income. For example, an individual's wages are taxed when they are earned, and interest, dividends, and capital gains from saved wages are taxed again. The death tax hits those earnings again when an individual dies.

The average farmer today is 60 years old. The average farmer is 60 years old, and we continually see fewer and fewer young people able to get into the business of farming. With a tax code that disincentivizes passing down the family farm to the next generation, how do we expect to feed our Nation and, in fact, the world, which is exactly what we do?

The estate tax also stifles economic growth and reduces our Nation's competitiveness. A study by the Joint Economic Committee in 2012 found that the death tax had destroyed $1.1 trillion in capital stock in the economy, and, of course, less capital investment means fewer jobs. Eliminating the death tax will encourage individuals to save, grow our economy, and, according to the Tax Foundation, will increase the capital investment reinvested back into our economy.

Additionally many of our producers, our farmers, and other small businesses do not have access to the equity they need to operate, so they rely heavily on debt financing to fund their businesses, and that is particularly true for new and beginning enterprises. Our Tax Code should incentivize our Nation's entrepreneurs to start their business or farm operation and allow them to grow and prosper. That is why it is a priority--certainly one of my priorities--that as we do tax reform, we maintain the ability of these businesses to deduct from their taxes the interest they pay on their debt in order to maintain a level playing field for small business.

Think about a family farmer out there. When family farmers need capital, it is very hard for them to go out and get equity. So they have to borrow that money in order to buy equipment and invest in their enterprises, and that is why the interest deduction for farmers is so very, very important. They don't have access to that equity capital; they have to borrow their money, which is a huge cost to their operation, and that is why the interest deduction for our farmers and for our ranchers is so very important.

Also, expensing is important for farmers and ranchers, and this is important for all small businesses. Being able to expense what they invest in their business makes a huge difference. Equipment, business supplies, and other capital expenditures can be very costly. For example, a new combine nowadays probably costs about one-half million dollars. For farmers to come up with one-half million dollars to buy a combine, which they obviously need, is hard to do unless they are able to expense that investment and deduct the interest on the debt that goes with it.

The tax framework we have proposed would allow businesses to immediately write off or expense the cost of new investment and business assets, effectively reinvesting in our Nation's businesses and helping to drive economic growth. It will allow businesses to increase investment and, again, increase job creation and wages. I would propose that we have full expensing for the first 5 years--that is great--but we should also on a long-term basis keep the section 179 expensing provision, which we have worked very hard to make permanent and which should be retained in this new Tax Code for the long-term, as we get beyond the first 5 years, as part of tax reform and tax relief that really works for our ag sector.

So these are some of the priorities we will be working on to include in our tax relief package to ensure that our farmers, our ranchers, and our ag industry continue to remain strong and really the leaders worldwide when it comes to, as I said, not only producing the highest quality but the lowest cost food supply in the world, which benefits every American every single day.

Tax reform is about getting the American economy going and growing, it is about creating jobs, and it is about creating jobs here at home, not overseas. It is about bringing that capital that is stranded overseas and repatriating it back to America and creating jobs in this country.

I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to work together. We need to pass this budget, and we need to pass tax reform for the hard- working people of North Dakota and for hard-working Americans across this great country.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I rise today to talk about what is really a ``once in a generation'' opportunity, and that is the opportunity we have right now to reform our outmoded and complex Tax Code and also, most importantly, to provide tax relief for our Nation's families, farmers, and small businesses.

Our Tax Code has not been updated since 1986. When you think about all that has changed over the last 30 years, you know that modern advances in technology have drastically revolutionized the way business is conducted. Today, the creation of the internet, substantially increased automation, and instant communications have created dramatic changes and in many ways have brought us closer in terms of communication and have interconnected our global economy in ways we never could have foreseen back in the 1980s, when we last reformed our Tax Code.

So it is past time--not time but past time--to modernize our outdated Tax Code to the 21st century. We must do so in order to ensure that American businesses can compete on the global stage, while providing tax relief to hard-working middle-class families who have been struggling to get and stay ahead over the last decade.

The recently released tax blueprint proposes sweeping tax reforms that will benefit working families and small businesses throughout the country while promoting job creation, economic growth, and global competitiveness. This country was built on hard work by individuals and families who strive each and every day to make ends meet to provide for their loved ones and to plan for retirement. The current Tax Code is complex and has many loopholes that do nothing to help our hard-working families keep more of their own hard-earned money. Our tax framework will help individuals and families in my home State and across this country to get ahead by generating new jobs through sustained economic growth while lowering the overall tax burden and putting more money back in the taxpayers' pockets.

We do this in a number of ways: by doubling the standard deduction, by eliminating taxes on the first $12,000 earned by an individual and $24,000 earned by a married couple, effectively establishing a zero- percent tax rate as the bottom bracket--the bottom tax rate. That means that nearly 81 percent of North Dakotans who claim the standard deduction could see a significant increase in their take-home pay. That is true of other States across the country as well. Further, we are consolidating and lowering the tax rates across the board while simplifying the Tax Code to make it fairer for everybody.

At nearly 70,000 pages long, it is no wonder that Americans currently spend 6 billion hours a year complying with the Tax Code. In fact, 94 percent of taxpayers choose either to pay someone else or to use software to prepare their taxes because of the complexity of our Tax Code. Our goal for tax reform is to allow the vast majority of Americans to file their tax returns on a single page--a simple calculation, something they can do themselves. We want to reduce the cost and stress that many Americans feel during tax season.

Further, our tax framework aims to create greater opportunities for small business owners, farmers, and others to help grow our economy and be more competitive than ever before. While we focus on a business friendly State in North Dakota--we have a very business friendly climate--the Federal tax continues to place an undue burden on the nearly 71,000 small businesses that operate in our State, which is more than 95 percent of all of the employers in the State. Again, this is something that applies across the Nation. The driver of our economy, the backbone of our economy is small business. They are the job generators. They are the job creators. We have to do more to help them do what they do, which is to create jobs and to grow our economy.

The same applies to our family farmers. My State alone has more than 30,000 family farms and ranches. Their marginal tax rate can reach as high as almost 45 percent, nearly twice the average rate of the rest of the industrialized world. That creates real challenges. This tax framework follows the example we have set in our State by restoring economic opportunity, by lowering the tax burden, and by enacting a pro-growth tax code.

Economists in general agree that high corporate taxes reduce wages to workers, raise costs to consumers, and reduce returns on retirement savings. That affects all of us. Maintaining high tax rates does nothing to improve the fairness of our system. It only punishes everyday citizens and reduces economic opportunities for all Americans.

For far too long, our Tax Code has incentivized American companies to send jobs and investment overseas, instead of keeping them here at home--keeping that investment, keeping those jobs here at home. Consequently, large multinational corporations now hold approximately $2.6 trillion overseas. That is money that could be repatriated back to the United States for investment in American jobs here at home. Our framework would end the loopholes and the incentives that keep foreign profits offshore by moving to a territorial tax system and encouraging repatriation of these offshore funds, bringing that investment back to America. This is about getting the American economy going again and creating jobs and opportunity here at home rather than overseas.

It is vital that we advance a comprehensive tax reform that simplifies the IRS code and simplifies rates. Putting more money in the pockets of working individuals and families and empowering private investment will drive domestic job creation and increase wages through higher demand for labor and lower business costs. All the while we can ensure stable government revenues through a broader tax

base, a growing economy, and a more efficient tax system. That means that we will continue to be able to fund our priorities as we work to get our debt and deficit under control.

Ensuring U.S. competitiveness in the global marketplace and providing tax relief to middle-class families will benefit both current and future generations. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to work together to get tax reform done for the people of my State of North Dakota, for their respective States, and for Americans across this entire country.

With that, Madam President, I yield the floor.