Senate Floor Speech
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
May 11, 2004 -- Page: S5200

MRS. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, this is an amendment that is a matter of fairness and equity. It is cosponsored by Senator Landrieu, Senator Smith, and myself. It is to put one sector that was in the original FSC/ETI coverage back into the bill. It is architects and engineers. We know there has been a huge outsourcing of professional jobs overseas. This is becoming more common. Our architectural and engineering firms are particularly vulnerable to foreign competition. This amendment is a pared-down amendment that would give them some of the tax deduction back. It is the only sector that was originally covered that is not covered in the bill before us.

My amendment would phase in the coverage over a 10-year period. It is offset, so there will be no cost. It is a matter of fairness. We should not lose our engineering and architectural jobs in this country. They have lost 31 percent of their margins in the last year.

I hope we will be able to agree to this amendment. It is a matter of simple equity. I believe with this phased-in tax deduction we will have an incentive to do our designing and engineering in our country, for buildings that are in our country. This is not applied to buildings built overseas, only buildings built in our country.

I urge the adoption of the amendment, but if it needs to be set aside for further consideration.