Demanding a federal budget that is fair, responsible, and meets our nation's priorities

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Kyl 's Half Dozen Hurdles for Senate Wage Bill

The Senate debate on S.2, the Minimum Wage bill, is all over but the shouting. Doing most of the shouting at this point is Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ), who is merely delaying the inevitable by insisting on floor votes -- expected today -- on up to six amendments, most relating to small business expensing and depreciation treatment of leasehold, restaurant, and retail space improvements.

Last week, a Kyl amendment to extend this depreciation through 2008, with an offset that would have taxed free tuition provided to children of employees at educational institutions, was tabled 50-42. One of Kyl's six amendments simply calls for this extension, but omits the offset provision. The remaining five, none of which has offsets, call for permanent extensions of the:

• Section 179 small business expensing limits (cost: $19 billion/10 years)
• 15-year depreciation for leasehold and restaurant improvements ($15.1 billion)
• 15-year depreciation for new restaurant property ($4 billion)
• 15-year depreciation for improvements to owned retail space ($4 billion)
• work opportunity tax credit, at a cost of more than $3 billion

Because these amendments are not fully offset, they are subject to a budget point of order, which requires 60 votes to overcome. Frustration with what some in the Senate have called "filibuster by amendment" provoked this response by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA):

We have now had amendments that have been worth over 200 billion dollars… Amendments that have been offered. We've had amendments on education of 35 billion dollars. We've had health-savings amendments that will benefit people with average incomes of $112,000… We've had those kinds of amendments and we're looking at the Kyl amendment[s]. But we still cannot get two dollars and fifteen cents -- over two years.

This is filibuster by delay and amendments. I've been around here long enough to know it when I see it and smell it, and that's what it looks like, that's what it is, make no mistake about it....