At our word. They began investing billions of dollars, reference to the material i have entered into the record, to realize the promise of that. Your bill retroactively repeal disagreement. Jobs. T in jeopardy 50,000 you put in jeopardy up to 50 million of 50 investment, and you start spiraling best out of control. If we had ever had hearings that you could listen to the ,tilities, to the manufacturers and to the farmers and ranchers who are relying on these payments in kansas, in south dakota, missouri, and texas, i cant imagine you would put this in the bill and make it retroactive, risking this investment, reneging on the bill that we have worked on on a to establish. Is i cannot imagine what you are thinking. This represents a horrible failure of the process. I am sorry, mr. Chairman. I am eating into five minutes instead of three. I will stop in case one of my colleagues will yield to me. Chairman brady thank you for selfregulating yourself. Thank you, mr. Pomeroy. Mr. Blumenauer. I think i am starting to understand my problem. [laughter] in defense of mr. Pomeroy they have wind in north dakota too, mr. Chairman. It just keeps getting better. About that. Chairman brady mr. Neil, you are recognized. That part of it is right. I want to yield my time in support of mr. Blumenauer. It is a good amendment and wherever mr. Pomeroy is, he supports this amendment. [laughter] rep. Blumenauer no doubt. Mr. Chairman, i have talked a lot in the course of this doceedings about trying to these things on a cooperative and thoughtful way. I have looked, as you know, to find ways to work across the aisle, and many of my colleagues who have debated this issue today know i have worked with them on things where we could make a difference. I have promoted the work of this committee in an open and thoughtful way to promoting hearings, finding where we can come together and get something done. Where we have, i have celebrated. This amendment is trying to help you fix an egregious problem that symbolizes what is wrong with what you have done with this bill. We could have come together with a tax credit, dealing with housing we could have taken the Small Business provisions on limit it to really Small Businesses, not hedge funds or sports buyers bars or donald trump. We could have done it on a bipartisan basis, and there would not have been a question about blowing a hole in the investment. But the choice is to go it alone with no hearings, without working with us, dropping on us written as is being we speak and will probably be rewritten in the rules committee. It has been a failure of the process. To say these words. I made your time into a bowtie bowtie tie into a celebrating ways and means. I believe we can go back to trying to Work Together, not relitigate what happened to years ago or two 20 years ago. Ago or 20 years ago. You would retroactively put in jeopardy billions of dollars of investment that many of us Work Together on a bipartisan basis to make this possible. Probably you are going to vote it down, even though you will not be able to explain it to your farmers and left and ranchers that are waiting on that. Example of things that will dog you, not just in the 2018 election but the 2020 election, whether it passes or not. I hope that it doesnt. I would request support for my amendment. Chairman brady mr. Marcy is recognized to speak. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Many of my constituents believe that this credit, this wind reduction credit, has too much ink and way too much abuse it. Some of these projects have been 5 ofd with a little as some of these projects have been put in the ground and just abandoned. So ranchers, who thought they would get the credit, thought they would have a stream of , inme, i looking out at the many cases just a slab sitting 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 decide to start back up to a tenyear stream of credits. Yet the bill generally, the bill that we put out for vote, generally preserves the intent of the program that was agreed to. We continue to have reasonable discussions about this. Maybe there is 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 should defeat this amendment. Chairman brady 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 to have a certain path to the free market. We continue to look for ways to improve the bill as we move forward, and we will continue to work with members in other areas. Thanks. Else wish to speak on the amendment . Mr. Chairman. Mr. Speaker, mr. Chairman . Chairman brady you would like to speak on the amendment . Isi would like to note texas the leading wind Energy Producer in the country, and as my colleague mentions, some people may not immediately set up their wind generating station, it is no different than somebody has decided they have got oil or gas on the property, and they dont immediately drill. I believe wind energy is coming on fast in texas. It is going at a much reduced price from where it started 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. Rep. Blumenauer i appreciate the courtesy in yielding to me. I listened to my friend from texas, and i am trying desperately to understand where he is coming from. The Wind Energy Credit is being phased out. They dont get the full credit they used to have. It is being stepped down in increments to be able to smooth it out. They are getting close to the point where they can function without subsidy. That was our goal. And i would suggest maybe some of the reasons people went out and maybe put down some slabs and try to get a toehold is because Congress Keeps changing his mind. Congress keeps having deadlines they pass. We have seen the energy shut down altogether because congress dropped the ball. That is why we on a bipartisan basis negotiated a fiveyear deal, so they would not be in that. You are taking and actively denying to retroactively denying those benefits. I would welcome a hearing, and you can welcome all the people from texas youd think have been cheated were shortchanged by wind energy. Then line up the people who have benefited and work in it and an and are getting payments. It would not be close. You would be embarrassed to have a hearing like that. I am trying to spare the committee from embarrassment, not renege on a deal. Keep pace with texans who have installed Scale Wind Energy than anybody else, and i believe it or material i passed out, they have most at risk to lose if you clues pull the plug on it. Vote for my amendment, get it out of the bill, then lets come back and have a hearing here on what you want to do to the Wind Energy Production tax credit. That would be a rational way of doing it. We used to do this on a bipartisan basis. I think it would be a very interesting couple days of hearings so we can fine tune it. Thank you very much. I feel back. Chairman brady mr. Reid, you are recognized to speak on the amendment. Mr. Chairman. As the chairman knows, and many others know, i have been a strong voice for the energy policy. I appreciate the negotiates negotiations and discussions to get these industries from infancy to commercial viability. I appreciate the gentleman in oregons commitment to this area, and i have enjoyed working with him and will continue to enjoy working with them as we go forward. I go back to the comments i made yesterday that if we are so inclined to support this amendment, my colleagues on the other side have made it clear from Public Comments and issues from their leadership and statements 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 Public. So i appreciate the chairmans comments. I join with my colleague to ask my colleagues to vote this down. I appreciate my chairmans commitment and his professionalism and his representation here today to continue to work in this area to find that area he is represented that some members are expressing concern about. I appreciate your leadership, and i believe this is an example of that leadership. I yield back. Chairman brady we will continue to work with you in this area. You are recognized to speak on the amendment. Thank you, mr. Chairman. The problem is, you say you will continue to work with us, then you have a bill that deletes the provision. And that doesnt work. It doesnt make any sense. I was going to bring up the electrical, electric vehicle tax credit today because it has been so important for renewable begin and so important to to move away from the present. I decided not to do it because i think you would vote it down. My amendment. Id not want the president you the precedent of you voting it down and at this in time you say you will work with me at the same time you say you will work with me. Mr. Blumenauers passion stems from the belief that we need to have some limited role of thernment to try to change way energy works in this country. That is what you are doing. Necessary to it is act the way you did in your bill foruse you need the money your overall bill, but you are sacrificing policies that are so vital. Thegain, i did not bring up electric Vehicle Credit because i was afraid you would say you will continue to work with us at the same time you do the credit. And the public cannot make sense of it. I will get my final minute to mr. Moon. I am shocked by what my friend from new york said because he was one of the people that helped us do this. Now if i understand him right, he is willing to hold when 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. When you are doing is, you are targeting something that is a bipartisan 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 fraud, that are not popular with the public, and dont relate to this bill. Chairman brady mr. Thompson, you are recognized to speak on the amendment. I would like to yield my time to our Renewable Energy hero, mr. Blumenauer. Rep. Blumenauer thank you, and i will stop at this point. I appreciate your courtesy. I appreciate you allowing me to state this. The contradictions that i see here in terms of how the committee should work and could this to being out retroactively repealed, hurting in a one of your states bill that many of you worked on, how do you pick this out of the tryand hold it hostage to and get people to vote for something the American Public feels uncomfortable with in which you are changing by the minute . Mr. Reid has no idea what the final bill looks like. I dont think he has an idea of what will be dropped on us out of the rules committee. Taking Something Like this from somebody in the Problem Solvers Caucus, and taking a problem i thought we had solved, and holding it hostage for trying to jam through a bigger bill, that is what is wrong with this process. We ought to be able to take individual items, debate them on their merits, find areas of agreement like we could have done in health care, and which we still could do i hope. But to wrap everything together, make it a moving target with nobody really knows the problems, and we will talk about some of them is, i think is a violation of the process. I said it will haunt everybody who votes for it. I believe that is the case. You have had people lined up trying to find out what is in the bill and pleading to not have unintended consequences. I long for the day we returned to regular order when we could have a weeks hearing on wind energy, and if mr. Marchant wants to fix it, lets fix it. I long for the days we have two days of hearing on american infrastructure which is falling apart while america falls behind and states are raising gas taxes. We cannot even discuss it here even though the chamber of commerce and the aflcio, many of your states would come up and testify why it is vital to do that and why it would help. That is the thing we could do. It is happening in states. Of thatl is exhibit a process failing here. I yield back. Chairman brady thank you. Gentleman yield back. Mr. Nunez is recognized. Mr. Nunez mr. Reid is a trusted member of our community, and those of you in the audience, you will notice those books in front of him. A man back can read that many books in four days, he has to know this tax code all the way through, in and out. I would yield to my good friend who is the tax expert from new york, mr. Reid. Mr. Reid i appreciate that, mr. Nunez,oming and it took more than four days. Dealing with tax reform, having hearings on the issues before us that set up this day for us to take this step, to move the bill forward to the floor and through the senate process, and through the entire legislative process. Mr. Blumenauer, at the end of the day, i anticipate the final bill that we will put on the president asked the president s desk will be different because we have to go to colleagues on the committee. We have to work with colleagues in the senate to make sure their differences and our differences are reconciled rapidly through a conference committee. That is regular order. As i listened to the beat yesterday, i was reminded, you should have reached out to us. We should have been discussing this. They were insinuating we should have been discussing this where . In the back rooms, in the closed doors . [video clip] that [video clip] we were somehow going to come to an agreement in the sunlight today . I am not going to yield. If we are truly interested in this debate, and i agree with mr. Blumenauer, when you reference my cochair of the Problem Solvers Caucus do you know what the Problem Solvers Caucus is all about . When we are trying to send a leadership message and to the extreme bases on the left and the right on the left and the right, and i said both, because your leaderships, especially when i saw yesterday and what i seen the netlist seven days in the last seven days, your leader repeatedly has said, and the minority leader in the will not support any effort on tax reform. As was reported in very respected Media Outlets here on the hill, the calculation has been made from the other sides leadership. We have to do everything in their power to block tax reform and the relief that we will provide to the middleclass americans i truly believe this bill will deliver to them by allowing them to keep thousands of their own dollars. In order to achieve their political goal, they have become their emblem of success, majority and the u. S. House and majority in the u. S. Senate. That is appalling to me. With that i yield back. Chairman brady gentlemen yields back. Mr. Sewall can speak on the amendment. Anyone else mr. Speak on the amendment . You are recognized. Chairman. Ou, mr. Can you help me just because i was not blessed to be a member of the committee with some of this was originally drafted, and looking at the gentleman of oregons amendment, can you first walk me through right now what the actual change we are talking about right here in the definitions and mechanisms and timing on the work in progress . Basic changeswo in hr one as was noted in the debate. There is a phased out law of the values of the production credit or value of the investment credit if the taxpayer does this instead of the investment credit. I want to emphasize, that his current law. Are 20 , 40 tions 2018. 60 2019, relative to the proposal that has been in the law for 20 years. Credit or thehe projects construction of which begins in those years, the inflation indexing is removed. The credit itself is the index that has a value of 2. 4 cents per kilowatt hour without indexing the value that refers to the base value which is 1. 5 cents. Are you using the inflation indexing is 1. 5 . The based on you of the credit established in 1992 was 1. 5 cents per kilowatt hour. Its base value currently. Because of indexing since 1992, the current value is two point percent per kilowatt hour. The adjustment would be repealed, meaning future projects would revert to the base value of 1. 5 cents per kilowatt hour. Currently in service, but new projects where construction begins after the enactment. Products project under construction right now, not all because the rules established four years ago now changed from more traditional investment role of Properties Placed in service to a commencement of construction, and there is regulations that define what is commencing construction. In the last 20 some seconds, i know that was only on that. Under theme rule production tax credit and under a number of other investment isposals and tax credits property placed in service by a certain date. I believe it was five years ago, the congress changed the rules of property placed in service to property that it construction of which commenced by a certain date. Thank you. That definition of construction is modified by the legislature. Chairman brady gentlemens time has expired. Anyone else wish to speak. Mr. Carl can speak. I think it is interesting direction of folks is in terms of debate and motivation as to the leadership of either side of the house. My good friend from new york, one of the cochairs of the Problem Solvers Caucus is creating more problems for new yorkers and our country with the passage of this bill. And to question the motives of the leadership, let be clear. No leadership wants to see this will defeated because it does not reflect, it is not reflective of our values, of our country. That is why we want this bill defeated. It is not in the interests of our constituents, nor do we believe in the interests of our country to see this bill move forward. , is ams of backroom deals a backroom deal to include democrats to speak to them about the bill and give it the light of day . We ask for people to have hearings on this issue so the American People can understand only wha