Extreme opposition to some of these provisions in the package. Id like to specifically respond to claims that some of my colleagues have made about wind energy and the wind production tax credit. Im sympathetic to the argument that the tax code has gotten too cluttered with too many special interest provisions. Thats the reason many of us for a long period of time have been clamoring for tax reform. But just because we havent cleaned up the tax code in a comprehensive way doesnt mean that we should pull the rug out from under domestic Renewable Energy production. Doing so would cost jobs, harm our economy and harm the environment and even enhance problems for national security. Im glad to defend the wind production tax credit and wind energy. Wind Energy Provides more than 4 of u. S. Electricity, supports 80,000 american jobs, spurred 105 billion in private investment in the u. S. Just since 2005. And that source of energy displaces more expensive and more polluting sources of energy, lowering electricity prices for consumers. More than 70 of u. S. Wind turbine value is now produced right here in the United States, compared to just 25 prior to 2005. More than 550 Industrial Facilities across 44 states manufacture for wind energy industry. The wind industry today supports 80,000 american jobs. The tax incentive has spurred 105 billion in private investment in the u. S. Since 2005. Opponents of Renewable Energy provisions want to have this debate in a vacuum. They disregard the many incentives and subsidies that exist for other sources of energy and are permanent law, but they dont seem to talk about those much. For example, the 100yearold oil and gas industry continues to benefit from tax preferences that benefit only their industry. These are not general business tax provisions as we are led to believe, no different than what other industries have. These are specific to oil and gas business, the same way as the Wind Energy Tax credit is specific to wind. I give you a few examples of these tax provisions. Expensing for intangible drilling costs. Deductions forter cherry injections. Special amortization for geological costs. These four tax preferences for this single industry result in the loss of more than 4 billion annually in tax revenue. Nuclear energy would be another example. In fact, a very great example. The First Nuclear power plant came online in the United States in 1958. Thats 56 years ago. Nuclear received special tax treatment for interest from decommissioning trust fund. Congress created a production tax credit for this mature industry in 2005, and that production tax credit is going to be available until 2020. Nuclear also benefits from the priceanderson federal Liability Insurance provisions. Congress provided that as a temporary measure way back in 1958, but its still here and it was renewed, as i said, through 2025. Nuclear energy also has received 74 billion in federal research and Development Dollars since 1950. Are these crony capitalist handouts . I havent heard it from the same colleagues that talk about wind energy. Is it time to end market distortion for Nuclear Power . I havent heard my colleagues talk about that. A kato study found that quote in truth, Nuclear Power has never made economic sense and exists purely as a creature of government. There is also no truth thats the end of quote. There is also no truth to the claim that wind energy is somehow under cutting base load power. Base load nuclear and coal energy are being harmed by cheap natural gas, transmission congestion and stagnant electricity demand. The chairman and c. E. O. Of next era energy, james rogol, addressed this issue in an oped recently. Next era operates significant Wind Generation but also a Large Nuclear operation. This is what he said quote we do not merely advocate for an all of the above energy strategy. We live it. And from our perspective, Nuclear Plants in competitive markets are not challenged by wind energy or below Natural Gas Prices caused by shale gas revolution. Blaming the wind industry for the challenges in the merchant Nuclear Business may be politically expedient, but it will not help any company or technology operate more successfully in a low natural gas environment. End of quote. Wind energy and its incentives are not to blame for the Market Conditions affecting the economic of Nuclear Energy, so id ask my colleagues a very simple question why is repealing a subsidy for oil and gas or Nuclear Energy a tax increase on Energy Producers and consumers while repealing an incentive for alternative and Renewable Energy is not . Its not intellectually honest, that argument. I authored the Wind Energy Incentive in 1992. Now, we all know that its that there is no justification for it to go on forever. It was never meant to, and it shouldnt. Im happy to discuss a responsible multiyear phaseout of the wind tax credit. In 2012, the wind energy was the only industry to put forward a phaseout plan, but any phaseout must be done in the context of comprehensive tax reform where all Energy Tax Provisions are on the table at the same time, and it should be done responsibly for a few years to provide certainty and ensure a viable industry. Thank god that chairman wyden has expressed his determination that this is the last tax extender bill prior to comprehensive tax reform. I share senator wydens sentiment in favor of putting an end to the annual kabuki dance, that is what we call tax extenders, the bill before the senate that we are going to be voting on here shortly. Good tax policy requires certainty that can only come from longterm predictable tax policy. Businesses need certainty in the tax code so that they can plan and invest accordingly. Moreover, taxpayers deserve to know that the tax code is not just being used for another way to dole out funds to politically favored groups. However, the only sound way to reach this goal is through comprehensive tax reform, and senator wyden as chairman of the finance committee can make that happen, and he said hes going to. I agree that there are provisions in extenders that ultimately should be left on the cutting room floor, but it is in tax reform environment where we should consider the relative merits of individual provisions. Targeting certain provisions for elimination now makes total sense for little sense for those of us that want to reduce tax rates as much as possible. Tax reform provides that opportunity to use a realistic baseline that will allow the revenue generated from cutting back provisions to be used to pay for reductions in individual and Corporate Tax rates. So i look forward to working with my colleagues in the future to enact that tax reform and to put an end to the headaches and uncertainty created by the regular expiration of the tax provisions that we are going to be considering or are considering right now on the senate floor. Right now, our focus must be on extending current expired or expiring provisions that will end up giving us room in the baseline, the baseline that c. B. O. Always talks about, to work towards that goal of tax reform. It is my hope that we can move quickly to reach a bipartisan agreement here in the senate and come to a timely agreement with the house. Taxpayers should not have to wait until december or january for us to act. I yield the floor. A senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from virginia. Mr. Kaine mr. President , since taking office, one of my highest priorities has been finding solutions to the Unemployment Rate among american veterans. We proudly in virginia proclaim a tighter connection with the American Military than any other state, and i know 99 other senators or 98 other senators would argue with me about that, but one in nine virginians is a veteran. Virginia has 27 military installations, including the Largest Naval base in the world in norfolk, the place where all marine officers are trained at quantico. Virginias map is a map of americas military history. Yorktown where the revolutionary war ended. Appomattox where the civil war ended and other civil war battlefields. The pentagon where one of the two attacks on 9 11 occurred. Our Service Members in virginia and nationally make a tremendous sacrifice for our country. We have to have a commitment to honor these sacrifices and demonstrate to service men and women the same degree of commitment to them as they have demonstrated to our country. And thats what makes the Unemployment Rate among our veterans so troubling. Veterans who are exiting military service in the iraq and afghan war era, especially enlisted men and women who may not have College Degrees have an Unemployment Rate significantly higher than the national average. In fact, mr. President , heres a statistic when i heard it that really stunned me. Between fiscal year 2001 and 2012, the department of defense spent 9. 6 billion on Unemployment Insurance payments. 9. 6 billion in payments to men and women who had exited the military and then couldnt find a job after they did. And obviously, these are men and women who have served valiantly during the longest period of war in the history of this country. As our armed forces continue to draw down in afghanistan after nearly 13 years of combat operations and those combat operations are scheduled to cease this year we have to do everything we can to ensure that these Service Members can find a way to quickly transition from military to civilian life and find good jobs in the process. We know and, mr. President , i know you know very well in your personal capacity that Service Members gain incredible valuable skills while serving in the military. We make a significant investment as a society in training each and every member of our armed forces in a military occupational specialty, many of which have parallel fields in the civilian work force. I have a child in the military now, and watching the degree of training that he undergoes, training that will be very valuable for civilian work when he chooses to make that transition and seeing the kinds of training that his colleagues undergo as well convinces me of these great skills that adhere in our military. But instead of making it easier for Service Members to get credit for these skills that would help them find employment as they transition to civilian life, they are often and continuing to face roadblocks. That inspired me, mr. President , to introduce my first bill as a senator last year, the true talent act of troop talent act of 2013. The troop talent act required information on civilian credentialing opportunities to be made available to Service Members during their active duty training and that information on military training and experience have to be provided as civilian credentialing agencies to help them understand how the skills for success in military life transfer directly to the skills of success in civilian life. If youre learning to opera heavy equipment in the military, get the commercial drivers license. If youre learning to be a battlefield medic, get credits right when youre learning that. Get the american welding certificate, put it in your personnel file, when you get ready to move to civilian life, you have have credentials that will be understood by a civilian workforce. I am proud that key parts of the bill were signed in to law as part of the National Defense authorizing bill we passed in september and with this information, Service Members will be more prepared to transfer into civilian life. Theyll have a better sense of what skills Service Members possess as they enter civilian life. So the passage of this true talent act was for me a first step, but there are many more steps that we have to take to tackle this problem of veterans unemployment. In speaking with military leadership, Service Members and veterans have lerped that there are some a have learned that there are some additional barriers to the employment of our veterans that deal with how Tuition Assistance moneys can be used by those in active service. One is the cost of fees associated with getting credentials while on active duty and those costs of credentials are not covered by the current military Tuition Assistance program. Some military members transfer out of the service and they decide to pursue a agree at a grege or university 0 at a college or university. But others are ready to enter a workforce with the skills they obtained through military training. Just to use the example i started with earlier, if you are a logistic ordinance officer, you take metal courses, you take welding course, very much in demand in the American Manufacturing sector rate now. Those individuals often have an ability they certainly have the skills to get good jobs when they leave. But they often lack something important. They lack the credential that the civilian workforce understands, in this case an American Welding Society cree engs dids, for example. Credential, for example. The military Tuition Assistance programs currently provides active duty Service Members financial assistance, up to 4,5 in aggregate for fiscal year, for post secondary programs. While nur service, you can take degree programs up to 4,500 a year those degree programs and courses will be supported by the program. But despite the success of this program, certification and license fees are not allowed to be paid with Tuition Assistance benefits. So in other words if youre in the military and you want to take a college course, you can get it paid. If you are in the military and you want to pass a welding certificate exam to be a welder, the Tuition Assistance program will not pay for that. This is a challenge because these credentialing exams can cost significantly out of pocket, often 300 to 500, and many of our enlisted men and women dont have that. And its really inequity balinge that we would allow them to draw down up to 4,500 for College Courses but not draw down one penny to get a cree deption for a tec to get acredential for l skill. I think we Value College and Community College in a way that we dont or havent traditionally valued career and Technical Education programs. So many of our programs pell grants and stafford loans, g. I. Benefits often can be used for easily for Community College or a Fouryear College than they can be used for even the highestquality career and technical programs. Thats why today im introducing the credentialing improvement for true talent or credit act. That money will go into the program and exspanged the authority of the program so it can cover credentialing expenses for the men and women who want to move into career and technical fields. It will give Service Members the means to pay for credentials while theyre still on active duty and before they transition into the civilian workforce. In addition, the legislation will ensure that the credentials our Service Members earn are of the highest quality thand theyre recognized by national and International Standards and not offered by shady or sort of flybynight organizations who simile want to simply want to pocket money that our military men and women are entitled to to help them get educational drengses. We in virginia have seen first hand how the talents of the men and women who serve our country can benefit our workforce and contribute to our economy. We make a Huge Investment in our Service Members and it is a disservice not only to them but also to our nation not to take advantage of the skills that we bestow on these men and women once they transition to civilian life. We have to, all of us, mr. President , stay focused on this. It is unacceptable for us as nation to look into the mirror and say, we will, our servicemen and women who served in iraq and afghanistan, they have an Unemployment Rate thats higher than the national average. Theres nothing we can do about that. No, we have to make sure that the skills can carry with them drengses that will enable them to get a quicker traction when they move into the civilian workforce. It is unacceptable that we are paying 800 million a year in the federal budget to pay for Unemployment Benefits for people who exit the military and then cant find jobs when they do. And we need steps like the credit act and others to bring down that veterans