Republican Ways and Means RSS Articles

Camp on Obama Budget: A Government that Takes More and Spends More Cannot Create a Climate for Job Creation

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Washington, DC - Today, Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) made the following statements in response to President Obama's 2013 budget proposal.

On Taxes & the Economy

“The President’s budget includes the biggest tax increase in history and the biggest budget deficit ever proposed. The President’s $2 trillion tax increase will destroy jobs and further weaken our economy. Furthermore, the President is filling the tax code with even more special interest lobbyist loopholes, instead of joining Republicans in job-creating tax reform. The President has decided to play the age-old Washington game of picking winners and losers and handing out favors to industries he thinks will help him politically, making the code less fair and more complex for average Americans.

“It is time for the tax code to treat American workers and employers fairly. The tax code should not favor one company or industry over another. The tax code should treat auto manufacturers no differently than those making solar panels, and it should treat those making wind turbines no better and no worse than those innovators making new cancer treatment drugs.

“On the individual side of the tax code, the President’s proposals would push federal tax rates close to 45 percent. No matter how much money someone makes, the federal government should not be taking almost half of everything they earn, especially not on top of all the other state, local and gas taxes Americans already pay.”

On Unemployment

“Though the President’s budget lacks many of the critical reforms necessary to move Americans from an unemployment check to a paycheck, his proposal highlights the fact that he continues to support reducing the number of weeks available in the Unemployment Insurance program to a maximum of 79 weeks – down from the 99 weeks available today.”

On Medicare & Social Security

“Again the President has refused to address the looming bankruptcy in our entitlement programs. These programs provide critical income and services to our nation’s seniors and those with disabilities, and they deserve Presidential leadership. His inaction has put not only these programs at further risk, but also the Americans who rely upon them.”

On Trade

“The need for enforcement of our trade laws is critical to ensuring that we have a more level playing field with our global competitors, and the President has made strengthening trade enforcement with China a priority. I look forward to seeing the details of the trade enforcement unit that the President mentioned in his State of the Union speech.

“However, I continue to be concerned about the President’s push to diminish the role of USTR in the Administration through the recently announced reorganization efforts. USTR is one of the most effective and efficient operations in all of government when it comes to opening up new opportunities for American workers and employers.

“In addition, enforcement is only one side of the trade equation. We must still push forward aggressively with opening new markets, including by promptly implementing the three free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea and by concluding the Trans-Pacific Partnership this year. I am disappointed that the President’s budget fails to incorporate any meaningful mention of the TPP or any future trade negotiations.”

On Health Care

"Today's budget does nothing to actually strengthen Medicare for the future. Instead, it will only further jeopardize seniors' access to health care.

"The budget is also noticeable for what is not addressed – any assurance that continued spending on the Democrats' unconstitutional health care law will make health insurance more affordable – something that has eluded consumers since the law was enacted."

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Camp Opening Statement: Hearing on the Interaction of Tax and Financial Accounting on Tax Reform

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Good morning. Today we are continuing our series of hearings on comprehensive tax reform. This morning’s hearing will focus on the interaction of tax policy and financial accounting rules (such as Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, or “GAAP”), and we will examine how this interaction affects the way in which publicly-traded companies respond to tax policy.

A subsequent hearing will look at the special challenges faced by small and closely-held businesses that might be less concerned with GAAP but must confront tremendous complexity in dealing with tax accounting and related rules such as choice of entity.

During today’s hearing we will consider how public companies evaluate tax policy options in light of financial accounting – or “book” considerations. As such, we will examine whether tax legislation works as intended when Congress does not consider the effects of financial accounting.

When companies report profits in their financial statements, the primary purpose is to convey information about a company’s financial condition to investors and creditors.

Conversely, the primary purpose of tax accounting is to measure income for levying the Federal income tax. These two functions are not necessarily consistent, and in some cases, may even be at odds.

For publicly-traded companies focused on Earnings per Share (EPS) in addition to cash flows, changes in tax policy might not produce intended results if the effect of tax policy on EPS is not well understood.

As a recent Tax Notes article suggests, when presented with an option between targeted tax benefits and a lower corporate rate, many publicly-traded companies might prefer a lower corporate tax rate over those tax benefits because of the “book” treatment. Similarly, tax provisions that provide cash benefits might not have their desired effect on behavior due to a less favorable “book” treatment.

A variety of factors can affect publicly-traded companies, and their decision-making processes, differently. For instance, the high U.S. corporate rate is an important factor for companies that use either GAAP or international accounting standards. If the rate is too high, companies will, all other factors being equal, allocate capital to a location that provides more favorable tax treatment.

Today, the current top Federal corporate income tax rate in the United States is 35 percent, and the average combined Federal-State corporate income tax rate is 39.1 percent, second only to Japan’s 39.5 percent rate. However, in fewer than 60 days – effective April 1, 2012 – Japan will lower its combined corporate tax rate to 38 percent. That will leave the United States with the highest corporate tax rate in the entire industrialized world. This dubious distinction will make it that much more challenging to attract businesses to hire and invest here at home where we need jobs.

However, not all employers have the same tax profile. The impact of federal tax policy on certain key book calculations can diverge significantly from the impact of the same policy on a company’s cash tax liability. We need to understand better how public companies respond to tax policy when such divergences occur.

If the goal is, as I believe, to transform the code and create a climate ripe for hiring and investment, then we must solicit input and insight from the very job creators who will do that hiring and investing.

Properly designing tax reform requires an understanding of the financial accounting rules and how those rules might influence the investment decisions of public companies.

I am pleased to have some of those businesses here today, along with members of the academic community who have done extensive research on how financial accounting affects corporate behavior, and I look forward to hearing from all of them.

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Herger Opening Statement: Hearing on Programs that Reward Physicians Who Deliver High Quality and Efficient Care

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT

We are meeting today to hear from individuals who have experience to share that will inform us as we continue our effort to reform Medicare payments to physicians. At our last hearing on this topic, we heard about different payment model options and efforts to test them in the private sector.

Today’s hearing, our second, focuses on more incremental, private sector-driven approaches to reforming payments. We will hear shortly from private payers, a physician organization, and a practicing physician, all of whom are engaged in efforts that reward physicians who provide high quality and efficient care to patients. A common theme will be how these key stakeholders are collaborating in private sector efforts to improve care while lowering the cost of providing it. Four of our witnesses, including those representing health plans, are physicians who are leading efforts to achieve this shared goal. I fully expect you will find their stories compelling.

Our end goal in all of this remains addressing the Sustainable Growth Rate formula through comprehensive physician payment reform done in a fiscally responsible manner. This past December, the House passed a bill that would have provided a two-year reprieve from SGR cuts. This would have provided the longest period of stability for Medicare physician payments in nearly a decade. It is worth noting that the last time that physicians knew what their payment updates would be for 24 months was when a Republican-led Congress enacted the Medicare Modernization Act in 2003.

The House bill would have also provided time to develop a payment reform policy that represents a true solution. Merely averting cuts is not a fix. The House bill would have facilitated the collection of information to assist in determining a sound policy prescription for paying physicians moving forward. The bill mandated studies by the non-partisan Medicare Payment Advisory Commission and the Government Accountability Office. It also required the Congressional Committees with Medicare jurisdiction to consult with physician organizations. A key focus of this data collection effort is, not coincidentally, the topic of today’s hearing – how to reward physicians for providing high quality, efficient care to beneficiaries.

Unfortunately, the Democrat-controlled Senate continued its habit of providing patches for a couple months at a time which led us to our current situation – one that again sees us too close to an unsustainable Medicare physician payment cut. While I am concerned about the continued uncertainty this poses for the Northern California beneficiaries and physicians I represent and those across the country, I hope that the Conference Committee will address this issue in a more responsible manner.

In the meantime, this Committee is continuing to focus on what we can do now to bring a permanent resolution to the SGR problem. I am confident the experiences that our witnesses share today will be very helpful in that regard.

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WaPo: Unemployment drop still leaves low skill workers behind

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Today, an article from The Washington Post highlights that despite the recent drop in the unemployment rate, Americans without a high school education continue to be at an extreme disadvantage when it comes to reemployment. The article notes, “The news is worse for high school dropouts. One in five of them have lost their jobs since 2007, with about half of those losses occurring after the recession ended, the Urban Institute said. Overall, the unemployment rate for high school dropouts was 13.1 percent last month.”

Unemployment insurance reforms that recently passed the House on a bipartisan basis included a provision that would require those receiving unemployment insurance to make progress toward a GED if they have not graduated from high school, with appropriate exceptions. Compared with those who drop out of high school, high school graduates had a 4.7 percent lower unemployment rate in January 2011 and earned at least $3 more per hour on average. Helping unemployed workers without high school diplomas get this basic credential and improve their skills, employability, and earning power is common sense.

Unemployment drop still leaves low skill workers behind
By Michael A. Fletcher, Published: February 6

ROCKLEDGE, Fla. — The nation’s jobless rate has declined to its lowest level in three years, a fact that has left Jamie Bean, an unemployed air-conditioner repairman, feeling more left out than ever.

Bean, 36, lost his job in December. Now he is scrambling to keep up with child-support payments to his wife, who is also unemployed. “As it stands now, I can’t afford to get divorced,” he said, managing a wry smile.

Bean’s predicament is not unlike that of many people who have a high school education or less. Not only were they hit especially hard by the recession but they have continued losing ground in the recovery that has followed.

By disproportionate numbers, these Americans have given up looking for work, making the nation’s recovery appear better than it is. If the unemployment rate counted the 2.8 million people who want jobs but have stopped looking, it would sit at 9.9 percent rather than its current 8.3 percent.

These would-be workers are falling behind as other people are gaining momentum, economists say. Employment prospects are modestly improving for college graduates, for instance, but dimming for those who have a high school diploma or less.

The number of Americans facing this predicament isn’t small. Nearly a third of the nation’s labor market has only a high school diploma. And more than one in 10 of these workers lost their jobs between late 2007 and early 2011, according to the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. About a third of those job losses occurred since the recovery began in mid-2009.

The news is worse for high school dropouts. One in five of them have lost their jobs since 2007, with about half of those losses occurring after the recession ended, the Urban Institute said. Overall, the unemployment rate for high school dropouts was 13.1 percent last month.

The recovery, economists say, has highlighted the consequences of not earning a college degree.

“There has been a considerable difference in who is getting those jobs,” said Pamela J. Loprest, director of the Urban Institute’s Income and Benefits Policy Center. She added that recent improvements in the jobless rate have not significantly lifted the burden on less-educated workers. “Lower-educated workers got hit harder. And the recovery has been uneven in that it has most benefited those with more skills.”

President Obama hailed the Labor Department’s most recent report that the nation’s unemployment rate had ticked down for the fifth consecutive month as evidence of an accelerating recovery.

Although the latest jobs report showed broad-based gains, the nation has a long way to go to make up for the positions lost during the recession — especially in some traditionally blue-collar occupations that were decimated by the recession.

Manufacturers, led by the auto industry, created 50,000 jobs in January and have added more than 300,000 positions in the past two years. But those gains pale in comparison with the 2 million manufacturing jobs that were lost during the recession. Similarly, construction jobs have grown in recent months, but not nearly enough to offset the 1.5 million that were lost in the recession.

The improvements that have occurred since the start of the recovery have accrued mostly to better-educated workers, analysts say. The economic challenge that lies ahead is finding a new place for workers such as Bean, who lack more academic credentials. Many of them rely on community colleges for their training, but those budgets have been cut in recent years.

The uneven nature of the recovery is particularly evident in states such as Florida that have struggled to rebuild parts of the economy that hire large numbers of less-educated workers.

Here along Florida’s Space Coast, a devastating one-two blow has left the job market reeling. Statewide, the implosion of the housing industry has put more than 350,000 construction workers, and untold numbers of real estate agents and mortgage brokers, out of work since July 2006.

“The construction industry was huge here,” said Rick Fraser, president of the workforce development board that covers Flagler and Volusia counties. “Construction workers were the first people hit by the downturn.”

Since then, both counties have struggled: Even with the recent surge in hiring, Flagler’s unemployment rate is 13.9 percent and Volusia’s is 10.1 percent.

In nearby Brevard County, about 10,000 Kennedy Space Center employees have been laid off over the past two years as the space shuttle and the constellation space programs were shut down.

Brevard’s unemployment rate is 10.8 percent, well above the state average of 9.9 percent.

Linda Rice, president of Brevard Workforce, the county’s job-training and placement service, said the ranks of the jobless include scientists, engineers, clerks and maintenance workers.

“Needless to say, those with a college degree are more capable of getting back into the workforce,” she said.

The workforce office requires job seekers who lack college training to take a basic-skills test to ensure that they are able to complete the job-training programs they pay for. But in many cases, Rice said, workers lack the math, computer and technical problem-solving skills needed to move forward.

“A lot of them just do not have the digital literacy that you need,” she said.

Even those who find work are discovering that the pay is lower than they are accustomed to. Parts clerks and administrative workers at the Kennedy Space Center used to make upward of $80,000 a year. Now, they are lucky to get half of that.

“I’m looking at a big pay drop,” said Shalene Pelton, a machinist who was recently laid off. “I was making more than $25 an hour. Now, the jobs I’m hearing about pay $18 — if I can get them.”

Paul Thirkelson, 45, an unemployed security guard and truck driver, has not worked since October and has been forced him out of his home. “I’m living with my retired, disabled father, and my two girls are living with a friend,” he said, as he prepared for a class at the workforce offices here.

Thirkelson said that the few jobs he has been able to find over the past several years pay poorly. He has done security work, warehouse work and work for a firm that cleans up flood-damaged homes. He has bookkeeper training, but says the jobs he qualifies for pay only $8 or $9 an hour.

“Let’s be honest: It is barely worth getting out of bed for less than $10 an hour,” he said. “I want to go ahead and get my Class A trucking license so I can make a decent living, but where do I get the money to do that?”

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Boustany, Coburn Request Information on Financial Mismanagement at HHS

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Washington, DC – Today, Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight Chairman Charles Boustany Jr., M.D. (R-LA) and Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Ranking Member Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK) sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius regarding an independent audit conducted by Ernst & Young, which reveals continued shortcomings and weaknesses within HHS’ financial management system. Boustany and Coburn are following up on questions about last year's annual audit, which found that HHS had improperly accounted for more than $794 million in 2010.

In the letter, Boustany and Coburn stated, “It is unacceptable that HHS fails to maintain accurate financial records and fails to adhere to federal law designed to protect taxpayer dollars from mismanagement and waste.”

Boustany and Coburn went on to highlight several findings of continued concern and called on HHS to provide explanations to the issues below by March 15, 2012:

HHS and Treasury Accounts Differ by $500 Million – An Increase of $100 Million since September 2010
$886 Million in Mystery Money – An Increase of More Than $250 Million since 2010
$2 Billion in Taxpayer Dollars in Limbo Disappears in the 2011 Financial Audit
$2.6 Billion Owed to Employer-based Retiree Prescription Drug Plans – An Increase of $700 Million since FY 2010
$3.8 Billion Owed to CMS – An Increase of $2.2 Billion since FY 2010

The full letter can be read here.

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Camp Opening Statement: Markup of H.R. 3864 “American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Financing Act of 2012.”

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Today the Committee will consider H.R. 3864, the “American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Financing Act of 2012.” This legislation would reauthorize through September 30, 2016 expenditure authority for the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) and extend through September 30, 2018 the current Federal excise taxes that fund the Highway Trust Fund.

H.R. 3864 also would restructure the funding sources for the Highway Account and Mass Transit Account that comprise the Trust Fund, and deposit certain non-tax revenues into the Highway Trust Fund without increasing the deficit.

We all can agree that funding improvements to the nation’s infrastructure is vitally important to creating and sustaining economic growth and promoting commerce. As such, I believe that this is an issue that can and should be addressed in a bipartisan manner.

Cities and towns depend on a strong infrastructure as a way to ensure that they can attract businesses to locate in their communities and create jobs. In my home state of Michigan, where unemployment remains well above the national unemployment rate, having a safe and reliable transportation system can provide a strong foundation for attracting business development.

However, we must approach infrastructure spending in a fiscally responsible way, and H.R. 3864 accomplishes that goal.

Because infrastructure spending has consistently outpaced Highway Trust Fund revenues, we have been propping up the Trust Fund with deficit-financed transfers from the General Fund. As a result, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has recently estimated that the Highway Trust Fund will run out of money for highway projects in Fiscal Year 2013 and for mass transit projects in Fiscal Year 2014. The bill before us today will provide stable funding for these projects for at least the next 5 years—without raising a dollar in new or higher taxes or adding a penny to the deficit.

I think it is important to make two points about this bill.

First, the bill has no new excise taxes. Instead, current excise taxes are extended at current levels.
Second, general fund transfers will help pay for the highway bill, as they have in the past. However, unlike the past, House leaders have pledged to find the money to offset that transfer. Those items are not before us today and are being worked on by other committees.

The overall highway bill has three principal goals: responsibly fund infrastructure improvements, create jobs, and promote domestic energy development. By transferring new revenues from domestic energy development into the Highway Trust Fund, our bill helps to accomplish all three objectives—without raising taxes or adding to our national debt. In fact, the Joint Committee on Taxation says that H.R. 3864 will have no net effect on Federal revenues.

So, our task today is clear. We are here to ensure that the funds dedicated to infrastructure spending have a path to the Highway Trust Fund.

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Johnson Opening Statement: Hearing on the Social Security Administration’s Death Records

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Social Security has always collected death information so it can stop benefits to those who have died and start benefits for their survivors. Today about 2.5 million death reports are received from many sources, including families, funeral homes, hospitals, financial institutions, States and Federal agencies. Social Security shares death records with other Federal benefit paying agencies, like the Veterans Administration.

A 1980 Freedom of Information Act court-mandated settlement required Social Security to also make information about deceased Social Security number holders available to the public. Under the Freedom of Information Act, deceased individuals have no privacy rights, so their personal information can be disclosed. In response, Social Security created the so-called Death Master File.   Soon afterwards, in 1983, Congress changed the law to protect death reports received from States. The information in the Death Master File comes from non-State sources and the file is sold to the public by the Department of Commerce.

Over time, a broad commercial interest has developed in the Death Master File for use in private benefits management and as a tool to prevent fraud and identity theft. Many groups purchase the file from the Commerce Department including government agencies, credit reporting agencies, financial institutions, law enforcement organizations, and medical and genealogical researchers.

But what made sense thirty years ago, no longer makes sense today. Identity thieves who get their hands on a Social Security number can reap instant rewards, while the rightful owner has no idea what has happened.

With 84 million listed individuals and 1.5 million new individuals added each year, it appears that this File has become a resource for criminals seeking to capitalize on Americans’ identities, particularly the identities of deceased children.

In her recent annual report to Congress, the National Taxpayer Advocate found that the Federal government facilitates tax-related ID theft through the release of the Death Master File.   In no uncertain terms, the National Taxpayer Advocate states in the report that she “is appalled that the federal government is making sensitive personal information so readily available, when such information can easily be used to commit identity theft.”

We will hear the heartbreaking story of the Agin family, whose four year old daughter had her identity stolen shortly after she passed away. Only when their tax return was rejected by the IRS, did the Agins learn that an identity thief had already filed a return claiming their child as a dependent.

Worrying about a lost loved one’s Social Security number is a burden no grieving family should bear. That’s why I, along with a number of my colleagues, introduced H.R. 3475, the “Keeping IDs Safe Act of 2011,” to protect this information. Even Social Security reports that approximately 14,000 living individuals are wrongly placed on the Death Master File each year. Any one of us could find ourselves mistakenly on that list – an inexcusable mistake that exposes our personal information and could cause severe personal and financial hardship.

Through our witnesses today we will learn more about the history of the Death Master File, its accuracy, and how it’s used.   Soon this Subcommittee will hold a joint hearing with the Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee to more closely examine identity theft in the tax system.

Americans rightfully deserve action to stop thieves from exploiting our deceased loved ones.

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Another Day, Another Misleading Report from the Obama Administration

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Today, the Obama Administration released a “report” claiming that the Democrats’ health care law will “save the average Medicare beneficiary $4,200 by 2021.” While their savings figure is highly suspect, perhaps they attribute the savings to:

Medicare spending going down because hospitals and nursing homes where seniors are currently treated may be forced to close.
- Because of the Democrats’ overhaul, Medicare officials predicted that providers in the Medicare program "could find it difficult to remain profitable and, absent legislative intervention, might end their participation in the program (possibly jeopardizing access to care for beneficiaries).”
Medicare spending decreasing because seniors will have to wait, and wait, and wait to see their physician.
- Because of the Democrats’ overhaul, Medicare officials stated,“For now, we believe that consideration should be given to the potential consequences of a significant increase in demand for health care meeting a relatively fixed supply of health care providers and services.”

Conveniently, the Obama Administration’s “report” did not take into account the following changes in the Democrats’ health care overhaul that will increase seniors’ out-of-pocket costs:

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicted that beneficiaries enrolled in a Medicare Advantage health plan, which one in four beneficiaries currently are, will see their benefits cut by $816, on average, in 2019 alone because of the Democrats’ $200 billion cut to Medicare health plans.
CBO also predicted that, because of the Democrats’ changes to the Medicare prescription drug benefit (Part D), seniors’ monthly premiums will increase by 9 percent in 2019.

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Time Is Up

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT

On February 1, 2009, President Obama said when speaking on the economy, “If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition.”

Three years later, the results couldn’t be clearer. The failed policies and broken promises of the President’s trillion dollar stimulus have made things worse than if he had simply done nothing at all. All the while, the President and Congressional Democrats continue to further stifle an already weak economy, with the same approach - more government spending and more debt paid for with job-killing tax increases. As the charts below illustrate, the policies of the Obama Administration have left Americans worse off now than before Obama took office.

America Before President Obama Took Office and Now

	Before	Now	Change
Number of Unemployed¹	12.0 Million	13.1 Million	+9%
Long-Term Unemployed²	2.7 Million	5.6 Million	+107%
Unemployment Rate³	7.8%	8.5%	+9%
“High Unemployment” States⁴	22	43	+95%
Misery Index⁵	7.83	11.46	+46%
Price of Gas⁶	$1.85	$3.39	+83%
“Typical” Monthly Family Food Cost⁷	$974	$1,013	+4%
Median Value of Single-Family Home⁸	$196,600	$169,100	-14%
Rate of Mortgage Delinquencies⁹	6.62%	10.23%	+55%
U.S. National Debt¹⁰	$10.6 Trillion	$15.2 Trillion	+43%

¹Number of unemployed in January 2009 and December 2011. http://www.bls.gov/data/#unemployment.
² “Long-term unemployed” means for over 26 weeks; data for January 2009 and December 2011. http://www.bls.gov/data/#unemployment.
³ Unemployment rates in January 2009 and December 2011. http://www.bls.gov/data/#unemployment.
⁴ “High unemployment” means having a 3-month average unemployment rate of 6% or higher. From the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ “Extended Benefits Trigger Notice” for January 18, 2009 and January 22, 2012. http://www.ows.doleta.gov/unemploy/trigger/2009/trig_011809.html and http://ows.doleta.gov/unemploy/euc_trigger/2012/euc_012212.html.
⁵ The “Misery Index” equals unemployment plus inflation. For January 2009 and December 2012. http://www.miseryindex.us/indexbymonth.asp.
⁶ Average retail price per gallon, January 2009 week 3 and January 2012 week 4. http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=EMM_EPMR_PTE_NUS_DPG&f=W.
⁷ U.S. Department of Agriculture, values represent monthly “moderate” cost per family of four for January 2009 and November 2011. http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/USDAFoodCost-Home.htm.
⁸ U.S. median sales price of existing single-family homes for metropolitan areas for 2008 and 2011 Q3. http://www.realtor.org/research/research/metroprice.
⁹ Residential mortgage delinquencies (real estate loans) for 2008 Q4 and 2011 Q3. http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/chargeoff/default.htm.
¹⁰ Values for January 21, 2009 and January 23, 2012. http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np.

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Tiberi Opening Statement: Joint Hearing on Harbor Maintenance Funding and Maritime Tax Issues

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Thank you Chairman Boustany. It’s a pleasure to have this opportunity to hold a joint hearing between our subcommittees. Our Members have a lot of interest in maritime issues and I believe today’s hearing is an excellent chance to examine how to strengthen the U.S. maritime industry.

I’m glad to have the opportunity to join with my friends on the Oversight Subcommittee in examining the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund. I too agree that it has been mismanaged and I appreciate Chairman Boustany’s leadership on the issue.

Today’s hearing also examines the policy issues surrounding the unique tax structure of the maritime industry. In the past, the Internal Revenue Code has unnecessarily hindered the growth of the U.S. maritime industry putting it at a competitive disadvantage internationally. While Congress took measures last decade to correct some of these problems, I believe there is still work to be done.

The Short Sea Shipping Act and the American Shipping and Reinvestment Act are two pieces of legislation that stand to improve the maritime industry. I look forward to exploring them further with our witnesses today.

Thank you Chairman Boustany. I yield back.

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Committee Rules and Committee Budget for FY 1997-1998

Wed, 05 Feb 1997 05:00:00 GMT

H.R. 668, the "Airport and Airway Trust Fund Tax Reinstatement Act of 1997"

Wed, 12 Feb 1997 05:00:00 GMT

Oversight Plan

Wed, 12 Feb 1997 05:00:00 GMT

Hearing on Medicare Provisions in the President's Budget

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 20:36:05 GMT

Hearing on Annual Report of the Internal Revenue Service Taxpayer Advocate

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 19:41:56 GMT

Hearing on WTO Singapore Ministerial Meeting

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 14:10:09 GMT

Hearing on "High-Risk" Programs within the Jurisdiction of the Committee on Ways and Means

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 19:22:51 GMT

Hearing on The Future of Social Security for this Generation and the Next

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 19:32:17 GMT

Hearing on The Future of Social Security for this Generation and the Next

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 19:38:30 GMT

H.R. 968, a bill to amend titles XVIII and XIX of the Social Security Act to permit a waiver of the prohibition of offering nurse aid training and competency evaluation programs in certain nursing facilities

Wed, 12 Mar 1997 04:00:00 GMT