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Mr. Speaker, this House has sent numerous jobs bills to the Senate in an effort to get
our nation back to work. I want to call particular attention to three percent withholding repeal
legislation I authored, which passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support just
last week. This legislation will help many small businesses create more jobs, and the
Senate should act on it without further delay. The House-passed bill would eliminate a burden
on job creators by repealing a tax that requires government agencies to withhold three percent
of all payments for goods and services. As someone who comes from a small business background,
I can attest that although this provision does not take effect until the end of next
year, it hurts job creation now because businesses look several years ahead when they are deciding
how to invest. It is not surprising that over 150 businesses,
healthcare, education, and local government groups support the passage of this legislation.
In addition, over 400 members of the House of Representatives have voted for it, and
President Obama has endorsed it as well as Representative Black’s associated cost-saving
measure. Instead of waiting for more “stimulus” bills that face bipartisan opposition, the
Senate should work with the House to pass the jobs bills like this one that are supported
by both parties. There are already fifteen jobs bills passed
by the House that are being delayed unnecessarily, and three percent withholding repeal joins
those forgotten fifteen in waiting in our U.S. Senate, and by our Senate colleagues.
The House version of this repeal continues to have strong bipartisan support. The Senate
has heard from job creators just as we have about the need for this legislation, and they
should work with us in passing common sense jobs bills, starting with the repeal of the
three percent withholding tax.