U.S. REP. GABRIELLE GIFFORDS' TAX CUT FOR SOLDIERS PASSES HOUSE

Legislation honors America’s heroes with concrete tax relief

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ legislation to protect combat troops’ eligibility for the Earned Income Tax Credit passed the House of Representatives today, part of a comprehensive tax relief bill for military families, veterans and fire fighters.

“Today Congress created tax fairness for our service men and women and their families.” Giffords said. “We honored their patriotism and commitment with more than empty rhetoric.”

The Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax (HEART) Act passed this afternoon with overwhelming bipartisan support in a vote of 410 to 0. It included a provision from Giffords’ Combat Troops Tax Relief Act that will permanently fix a flaw in the tax code that penalizes our men and women in uniform for serving in combat zones. This critical defect in our tax code affects as many as 10,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. By permanently extending expiring provisions already in law, this bill will save many of our servicemen and women, and their families, thousands of dollars each year.

Speaking on the floor of the House prior to the vote, the Tucson lawmaker said her bill would directly benefit military families in Southern Arizona. Among them are Army Specialist Adam Hebert and his family. The Fort Huachuca soldier “soon will be leaving his wife and two children for combat abroad,” Giffords told her colleagues. “This bill will give the Heberts concrete tax relief” by allowing his family to continue to fully benefit from the Earned Income Tax Credit during his combat deployment.

The HEART Act includes provisions that:

• Make permanent current law to include combat pay as earned income for purposes of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). At the end of the year, soldiers’ families working to get into the middle class will be denied needed tax relief if combat pay is not counted for purposes of receiving the EITC. In 2003, the previous Congress deliberately excluded certain military families from the Child Tax Credit law providing $350 billion in tax cuts to wealthier taxpayers.
• Make thousands of veterans eligible for low-interest loans by making permanent and modifying qualified mortgage bonds used to finance residences for veterans.
• Make permanent other tax provisions to relieve economic hardships for military families, such as permitting active duty reservists to make penalty-free withdrawals from retirement plans.
• Include tax benefits for other public servants who face risk, such as volunteer firefighters and Peace Corps volunteers.

To see Giffords speaking today on the HEART Act, please visit the “Video Library” page of the Press Center on the congresswoman’s website, http://giffords.house.gov/. The transcript of those remarks is below.

“Cutting Taxes for our Combat Troops”
H.R. 3997 - The Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax Act
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords
November 6, 2007

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of tax cuts for true American heroes:  our combat troops, our veterans and our fire fighters.

Last month I introduced H.R. 3808, the Combat Troops Tax Relief Act.  I am very pleased that the first provision in the HEART Act is taken from my tax bill.  

This bill honors the patriotic commitment of military families such as the Heberts in Southern Arizona.  Army Specialist Adam Hebert is currently stationed at Fort Huachuca.  He is married with two children, and soon will be deployed abroad for combat service.

This bill will give the Heberts concrete tax relief.  It will permanently protect their eligibility for the Earned Income Tax Credit. 

In Southern Arizona and across the United States we must honor our heroes with true tax relief.  I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join with me to pass H.R. 3997, the HEART Act.