Lankford Pushes to Create Certainty in US Tax Code for Businesses

CLICK HERE to watch Lankford’s remarks on YouTube.

CLICK HERE to watch Lankford’s remarks on Rumble.

WASHINGTON, DC – Senator James Lankford (R-OK) today questioned witnesses during a Senate Finance Committee hearing, entitled, “American Made: Growing US Manufacturing Through the Tax Code,” on his bill the Accelerate Long-term Investment Growth Now (ALIGN) Act. The ALIGN Act would make permanent a provision in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) that allows businesses to fully expense new investments (machinery, equipment, etc.) in the year of purchase. The provision in the TCJA is currently set to expire at the end of 2026. 

Lankford also highlighted the Protecting Domestic Energy Production Act, which would allow companies to consider intangible drilling costs (IDCs) when calculating taxable income. IDCs allow oil and natural gas companies to recover their intangible costs more quickly, freeing up funds to reinvest in development, resulting in more jobs. This bill will provide targeted relief for the small and mid-sized oil and gas producers across the state of Oklahoma. The Democrats’ so-called Inflation Reduction Act attacked oil and gas companies by taking away their ability to deduct normal business expenses under the Book Minimum Tax. During the hearing Lankford highlighted the support from the American Exploration and Production Council and the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance. 

Testifying during the hearing included, Mark R. Widar, Chief Executive Office, First Solar, Inc (Tempe, AZ); Anna Fendley, Director of Regulatory and State Policy, United Steelworkers (Pittsburg, PA); Shannon Janis, Vice President of Global Tax (Scottsdale, AZ); Courtney Silver, President and Owner, Ketchie Inc., (Concord, NC); and Peter R. Huntsman, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, Huntsman Corporation (Woodland, TX). 

Excerpt

Lankford on Bonus Depreciation: We do need to get permanency in the tax code. What we’re discussing, currently right now, is a temporary fix. But we need to get some permanency to our tax code showing it is predictable. I heard multiple of you, basically say, get the tax code set and leave it alone. Make it business-friendly so we can actually hire people, buy equipment, do those things and to be able to set it. I have the ALIGN Act that deals with bonus depreciation to try to make this permanent and so it is predictable. This has been bipartisan in the past. Every year since 200[1] we’ve had some kind of bonus depreciation except for 2007. This hasn’t been a partisan issue for us. It’s a basic pro-growth…tax policy. I’d like to be able to get, get it set, and to be able to leave it there. 

###