That briefing earlier today. Before the passage in the ways and Means Committee this afternoon of the republican tax reform bill to mark the markup session wrapping up today, the vote was 416. Heres some of the Committee Debate ahead of the final passage vote this afternoon. Mr. Brady are there further questions . Mr. Neal will there be sufficient time to digest the document, understanding were going to the floor quickly to vote for the last series of the week and because of time constraints the obvious view we hold on this side that we want time, to be able to take a look at whats in the managers amendment based on whats happened as of monday evening and the short notice we received on thursday, it appears likely that we will at this schedule and pace have very little time to see the managers amendment and then to professionally react to it. I suppose the second question, based upon what weve seen this morning with the delay is, has there been a possibility for republicans to actually have seen and read and devoured the managers amendment . Mr. Brady as we laid out, mr. Neal, at the beginning of the week, we are convening today to finish the democrat amendments. Yesterday you indicated there were five or six more you wanted to have us consider. Well do that. We will then take up the managers amendment that brings the Committee Work under the 1. 5 trillion budget reconciliation. And then well conclude this markup later today. We will, as i said yesterday, even though it is beyond ordinary regular order, we will provide you that managers amendment just as soon as practicable and give you a chance to analyze it. But we will, as we do with your amendment, well take up on a timely basis, have full and open debate on it before the vote is called. Thank you. Are there further amendments to the amendment in the nature of a substitute . Mr. Chairman, id like to ask unanimous consent to have two letters put into the file, one from the county of napa regarding tax dream of fire victims and the other from the California Hospitals Association that explains in very good detail how the tax bill before us hurts not only the hospitals with california job growth and the economy, by messing with the bonding ability that hospitals use to not only build new hospitals but to retrofit old hospitals, something that as mr. Nunes knows in california is a big problem. Theres more cost associated with retrofitting the hospitals than there is equity in the hospitals in california. Id like to have these two letters put in the record. Mr. Brady without objection. Mr. Blumenauer . Mr. Blumenauer i have an amendment at the desk. Mr. Mue necessary i reserve a point of order. Mr. Blumenauer while the clerk is distributing. Mr. Chairman. R. Chairman. While the clerk is distributing i would like to acknowledge you gave me a letter this morning in reference to the issue that i raised on monday. And you indicated that there would be an opportunity before we adjourn to be able to explore others h mr. Bartow and and im asking to have distributed to the committee a copy of the exchange that ive had over the last four days that talks about this being a problem so that i should have done it monday. To every Committee Member. To understand whats going on. But i would like to have that available to each Committee Member before we get into a discussion. So they know what mr. Brady great. Would you like mr. Nunes. Mr. Nunes i withdraw my point of porder. Mr. Brady the gentleman from oregon is recognized for five minutes on his amendment. Mr. Blumenauer for how many minutes . Mr. Brady three minutes. You should have take then first offer. Mr. Blumenauer no, i try to play straight with you, if you i want to take care of that. Before the time starts can i ask that some items be submitted for the record. From the hill magazine, Congress Turns its back on american workers. From the american wind association, house reneges on tax deals, puts american jobs at risk. Along with that, a map showing the distribution of all the major Wind Facilities across the country and the final map that demonstrates that every Single Person on this Committee Comes from a state that has wind anufacturing elements. Mr. Brady without objection. Mr. Blumenauer thank you, mr. Chairman. Im frustrated, im embarrassed these things take so much time and get to this point but i find this whole process an embarrassment. Especially as we dive into this hopelessly misdirected bill. Despite the best experts, pollsters, writers, lobbyists that money can buy this bill will give heart burn to every person who supported it for the ext 36 months. Im going to focus in my remaining time on one of the worst failures of process, the inability to set priorities and keep faith with what most of you would claim would be a core republican value. Treating taxpayers andest pearblely business consistently and honoring our word. If you make a deal, honor it. Especially if theyre acting upon this promise. Those of you who went to law school know this is first year law school. There are remedies, especially when you pull out of a deal. Except if youre dealing with republicans in congress. I have been working on wind energy since 1999. That was an industry that congress started because when it began it wasnt cost effective. We were a step behind other countries and still are. Those of you who have been to china and looked at what theyre doing with wind energy know this is not a static process. Were in a race to be able to protect our own industry. We went through boom and bust because congress refused to give the industry a steady, predictable path forward that they could count upon, refine the technology, and come to scale. Some of you worked with me to have that predictable path, to stop the boom and bust and get the shortterm extensions. In 2015 we fwoshted a way to do that, to follow through on this process. The Wind Energy Industry, thanks to work weve done on a bipartisan basis, now employs over 100,000 americans in all 50 states. 00 american factories. His is why the renewable mes more people than gas and oil and more people than coal. Wind is an important part of that the wind industry took us at our word. They began investing billions of dollars, reference the material ive entered into the record, to be able to realize the promise of that deal. But your bill rhett are actively epeals this agreement. If you could listen to the farmers and ranchers relying on these payments in kansas , in south dakota , in missouri and texas, i cant imagine you would have put this in the bill and make it retroactive, risking this investment, reneging on the bill, a deal, that weve worked on a bipartisan basis to establish. Im sorry, it looks like im eating into five minutes instead of three. Ill stop at this point in case one of my colleagues will yield to me. Mr. Brady thank you for selfregulating yourself. Thank you, mr. Pomeroy. R. Blumenauer i think im starting to understand my problem on this committee. Mr. Brady mr. Blumenauer. Mr. Neal youre recognized to speak on the amendment. Mr. Neal im glad that part of it is right. I yield my time in support of mr. Blumenauer. Wherever mr. Pomeroy is right ow he supports this amendment. Mr. Blumenauer mr. Chairman, ive talked a lot in the course of this proceedings about trying to do these things on a ooperative and thoughtful way. And many of my colleagues know that i have worked with them on things where we could Work Together and make a difference. I have promoted the work of this committee in an open and thoughtful way, to pro promoting hearings, finding where we can come together, get something done. And when we have, i celebrated it. This amendment is trying to help you fix an egregious problem that symbolizes whats wrong with what youve done with this bill. We could have come together with a tax credit for dealing with housing that would have benefited everybody. We could have taken the Small Business provisions on passthrough and limited it to really Small Businesses. Not hedge funds. Not sports bar. Not donald trump. We could have done that on a bipartisan basis and there wouldnt be questions about blowing a hole in the revenue estimate. But because the choice is to go it alone, with no hearings, without working with us on a cooperative basis, dropping on us a bill that is being written as we speak and is probably going to be we written in the rules committee, it has been a failure of the process. It saddens me to say these words. I even took your tie and made it into a bow tie, celebrating ways and means. I believe in the work we do here. And i think at some point well come to our senses and go back to actually trying to Work Together. Not relitigate what happened two years ago or 10 years ago or 20 years ago. Nothing symbolizes, i think, the failure of this process than the fact that you would retroactively put in jeopardy billions of dollars of investment that many of us Work Together on a bipartisan basis to make possible. And probably youre going to vote it down. Even though you wont be able to go home and explain it to your farmers and ranchers that are relying on those payments. To the Wind Energy Manufacturers in your states. Its just one example of things i think thats going to dog you, not just in the 2018 election but the 2020 election. Whether this bill passes or not. And i hope that it doesnt. Thank you and i would respectfully request support for my amendment. Mr. Brady the gentlemans time has expired. Youre recognized to speak on the amendment. Many of my constituents believe that this credit, this wind production credit, has too much risk and way too much abuse in it. Some of these projects have been started as little as 5 of some of these projects have been put in the ground and then just abandoned. So ranchers who thought they were going to get a credit, thought they were going to have a stream of income, are looking out at the, in many cases just a slab thats sitting there in the ground because they were able to get the project started and let it sit there for years. Nonetheless, these facilities are still entitled, when they finally decided to start them back up, to a 10year stream of credits. Yet, the bill generally the bill that we put out for vote, generally preserves the intent of our phase out program that was agreed to. We continue to have reasonable discussions about this. Maybe theres room to amend this in the future. But for now, mr. Chairman, i think what we have in our bill draft is correct and i think we hould defeat this amendment. Will the gentleman yield . You make great points, we are listening to members in this issue. We certainly want over time Renewable Energy and others feel have a certain glide path to the free market. Mr. Brady we continue to look for ways to improve the bill as we move forward and will continue to work with members in these and other areas. Thank you. Anyone else wish to speak on the amendment . Mr. Speaker, mr. Chairman. Mr. Brady mr. Doggett, you are recognized to speak on the amendment. Mr. Doggett texas texas is the leading wind producer in the country and the problem some the problem the gentleman mentions, that some may not immediately set up their wind generating station is no different than somebody who decided they have oil or gas on their property and dont immediately drill. I believe wind energy is coming on fast in texas. Its going at a much reduced price from where it started out because this credit has helped get our Renewable Energy moving there. I would yield to mr. Blumenauer so texas can stay number one in wind energy. Mr. Blumenauer i appreciate the gentlemans courtesy in yielding to me. I listened to my friend from texas. And im trying desperately to understand exactly where hes coming from. The Wind Energy Credit is being phased down. They dont get the full credit they used to have. Its being stepped down in increments to be able to smooth it out. Because theyre getting close to the point where they can function without subsidies. That was our goal. And i would suggest that maybe some of the reasons that people went out and maybe put down some slabs and tried to get a foot a toe hold is because Congress Keeps changing its mind. Congress keeps having deadlines that pass. Weve seen the Wind Energy Industry shut down altogether. Because congress dropped the ball. Thats why we on a bipartisan basis negotiated a fiveyear deal so they wouldnt be in that. But you are taking ant retroactively denying those benefits. I would welcome to have a hearing before this committee, and you invite in all the people in texas that you think have been cheated or shortchanged by wind energy and then line up the people who have benefited it who work in it and are getting payments. I dont think it would even be close. You would be embarrassed to have a hearing like that, i think. Im trying to spare the committee from embarrassment. Not renege on a deal. Keep faith with texans who have more installed Scale Wind Energy than anybody else and i believe in the material i passed out theyve got most at risk to lose if you pull the plug on it. Vote for my amendment. Get it out of the bill. And then lets come back and have a hearing here on what you want to do with the Wind Energy Production tax credit. That would be, i think, a rational way of doing it. And we used to do this on a bipartisan basis. I think it would be a very interesting couple of days of hearings so we can fine tune it. Thank you very much. I yield back. Mr. Brady the gentleman yields back. Mr. Reid, youre recognized to speak on the amendment. Mr. Reid thank you. I think the chairman knows and many others know, i have been a strong voice for an all of the above energy policy. I appreciate the negotiation and discussions we had in regards to the phaseout to get these industries from infancy to commercial viability. I appreciate the gentleman from oregons commitment to this area and ive enjoyed working with him and will continue to enjoy working with him as we go forward. I do , hen back to comments i i do harken back to comments i made yesterday, if we are inclined to support this amendment, my threes on the other side have made it clear from Public Comments and statements from their leadership in the house and senate that they are adamantly opposed to any implementation of tax reform being driven from our side to the floor to get relief to the American People from the code thats represented here to my right. Mr. Reed i appreciate the chairmans comments. And i join with my colleague from texas, mr. Marchant, to ask my colleagues to vote this amendment down. But i appreciate my chairmans commitment and his professionalism and his representation here today to continue to work in this area, to find that area that hes represented, that some members are expressing concern about and i truly appreciate your leadership on that issue. I believe this is an example of that leadership being displayed. With that, i yield back. Mr. Brady thank you, we will continue to work with you in this area. Mr. Levin youre recognized to speak on the amendment. Mr. Levin thank you, mr. Chairman. The problem is, you say youll continue to work with us. But then you have a bill that deletes the provision. And that doesnt work. I mean, it doesnt make any sense. I was going to bring up the electrical electric vehicle tax credit today. Because its been so important for Renewable Energy and so important to begin to move away from what the president. I decided not to do it because i think you would vote it down. My amendment. And i didnt want the precedent of your voting it down while at the same time you might say youll work with us. Mr. Blumenauers passion really stems from the belief that we need to have some limited role of government that tries to change the way energy works in this country. Thats what youre doing. Nd you then say its necessary to act the way you did in your bill because you need the money for your overall bill, but youre sacrificing plcies policies that are so vital. So again, i didnt bring up the electric vehicle tax credit because i was afraid youd say, youll continue to work with us at the same time you delete the redit. And the public cant make sense of that. I think ill yield my final minute to mr. Blumenauer. Mr. Blumenauer thank you. Im shocked by what my friend from new york said. He was one of the people on a bipartisan basis that helped us do this. Now if i understand him right, hes willing to hold what he worked on in a bipartisan basis hostage to force people to vote against something they find egregious. Like repealing the inheritance tax for billionaires. I find that really fundamentally flawed. And i would be embarrassed to make that argument. Because what youre doing is, you are targeting something that is a bipartisan why punish, why punish an industry that i thought you were trying to help, that has much activity in new york because you want to force everybody here to vote for the inheritance tax for billionaires . Or to deal with problems with carried interest . We can go on on a number of things that are flawed that arent popular with the public and dont relate to this bill. Mr. Brady thank you. Mr. Thompson youre recognized to speak on the amendment. Mr. Thompson id like to yield my time to my Renewable Energy hero, mr. Blumenauer. Mr. Blumenauer thank you. I will stop at this point. I appreciate your courtesy, i appreciate you allowing me to try and state this and i the contradictions that i see here in terms of how the committee should work and could work, singling out this to be retroactively repealed, hurting every hurting every one of your states, and a bill that many of you worked on. How do you pick this out of the air to hold it hostage to try and get people to vote for something that the American Public feels uncomfortable with and which you are changing by the minute . Mr. Reed has no idea. But that final what that final bill looks like. I dont think he has an idea of whats going to be dropped on us out of the rules committee. But taking Something Like this from