Hodes Blocks Bipartisan Bill for Tax Relief

For Immediate Release:                                                                  Contact: Press Office
September 27, 2008                                                                                     (202) 479-7070

Hodes Blocks Bipartisan Bill for Tax Relief
Votes to Block Tax Credit Extensions for Families, Businesses

Washington- Rep. Paul Hodes (D-NH) voted to block a bipartisan bill to provide tax relief to hardworking individuals and families considered critical for providing energy and growth for the American economy (House Roll Call 648).  Hodes left families and business stranded in the final days of the 110th Congress and even put himself at odds with 93 United States Senators who support these tax credit extensions:

“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid urged the House to agree to pass the Senate’s version, which President Bush supports.”
 
“‘It would be a terrible shame to the American people that a small group of members of the House or Representatives would hold up this extremely important package,’ Reid said.” (Congressional Quarterly, 9/26/08)

The bipartisan Senate bill, which Paul Hodes voted to block, would:

• extend dozens of expired or expiring tax provisions, including the research & development tax credit, deductions for tuition and teachers’ education expenses, and deductions for sales tax in states without income taxes
• extend several energy tax credits, including those for wind, solar power, clean coal, biofuels and more
• provide tax relief for victims of natural disasters in the Midwest, Texas and Louisiana
• provide a one year “patch” from the Alternative Minimum Tax, which is scheduled to hit over 20 million taxpayers for the first time when they pay their 2008 income taxes

“Even into the final hours of this Congress, Paul Hodes continued to side with his out-of-touch party bosses in Washington at the expense of hard-working New Hampshire families struggling with a failing American economy,” said NRCC spokesman Ken Spain.  “The voters in New Hampshire can’t afford Paul Hodes’s blind partisanship and tax-and-spend agenda anymore.”