The future of the federal ethanol
program has been debated in both the House and Senate recently as Congress has
acted to pass comprehensive tax relief legislation.
Senate Votes to
Extend Ethanol Tax Incentive During floor debate of the Senate's tax
package, the Senate voted 69 to 30 to extend the ethanol tax incentive through
the year 2007. The vote was a defeat for Senator John McCain (R-AZ), who offered
an amendment to delete the extension.
The extension was included during
the Senate Finance Committee's mark up of the tax bill. The amendment to extend
the ethanol program was offered by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Sen. Carol
Moseley-Braun (D-IL), passing by a vote of 16 to 4. "Extension of the ethanol
tax incentive is essential to continued investment in expanded ethanol
production throughout the Midwest," said Grassley.
House Leadership
Removes Anti-Ethanol Provisions On the House side, Ways and Means
Committee Chairman Bill Archer (R-TX) included language in the Committee's tax
package to reduce the ethanol tax incentive from 5.4 to 5.1 cents per gallon of
ethanol-blended gasoline, cap current production to existing producers' average
production for 1993 - 1997, and repeal the incentive in 2000. An amendment
offered by Rep. Jim Nussle (R-IA) and Rep. John Tanner (D-TN) to delete these
provisions during committee mark up was defeated, 17 to 21.
As a result
of the strong support for ethanol expressed by more than 100 members of
Congress, the Governors' Ethanol Coalition, the agricultural community,
environmentalists, consumer advocacy organizations, and gasoline marketers, the
House leadership moved to delete the controversial anti-ethanol language from
the tax relief legislation prior to the floor vote in the House.
A
House/Senate conference is meeting to reconcile the differences between the two
tax packages, including treatment of the ethanol tax
incentive.
