Senate Floor Speech
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
May 14, 2003 -- Page: S6260

MRS. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I am pleased to introduce a bill to correct an inequity in our tax code.

Currently, we use inconsistent standards to tax different types of political campaign committees. Congressional campaigns are taxed at the applicable corporate rates: depending on how much taxable income a campaign generates, it will be taxed at rates that vary from 15 percent to 35 percent. However, all other campaigns must pay the highest corporate rate of 35 percent. This is unfair.

It's wrong to tax some campaigns at rates that change according to income level and then arbitrarily charge others at the highest possible rate. This disparity particularly hurts local and State candidates who generally have relatively low levels of taxable income but have to pay the same 35 percent rate as campaigns that may generate more than $10 million in taxable income.

The bill I am introducing today will eliminate this inequity by taxing all campaign committees at the corporate rate based on their level of income. No longer will congressional campaigns be allowed to receive preferred tax treatment. All campaigns will be treated the same.

I hope my colleagues will support this effort to improve the fairness of the tax code.