HM 1351

1
House Memorial
2A memorial to the Congress of the United States, urging
3Congress to strengthen and make permanent the research and
4development tax credit.
5
6     WHEREAS, research and development is a vital economic
7component in the 21st century, generating ideas and technologies
8that encourage productivity and economic growth, and
9     WHEREAS, research and development keeps this country's
10companies on the cutting edge of global competitiveness,
11providing its citizens and customers around the world the latest
12products and services in all sectors of the global economy,
13especially telecommunications, transportation, and medicine, and
14     WHEREAS, the research and development tax credit is
15responsible for returning $2 to the economy for every dollar
16spent, and
17     WHEREAS, the research and development tax credit is an
18effective tool for stimulating additional research and
19development, and
20     WHEREAS, domestic companies that employ high-skilled, high-
21wage workers across this nation depend on the research and
22development tax credit for maintaining the nation's leadership
23in the world in technology, particularly biotechnology,
24manufacturing, and other key areas of business, and
25     WHEREAS, the research and development tax credit stimulates
26innovation-producing research and development investments in all
2750 states, involving nearly 18,000 small, medium, and large
28companies, according to a report by Ernst & Young LLP, and
29     WHEREAS, firms in all major industries claim the research
30and development tax credit, with the principal industries
31claiming the credit being those involved in manufacturing, the
32provision of professional, scientific, or technical services,
33and information technology, and
34     WHEREAS, a recent study showed nearly 2,400 firms in
35Florida reported conducting research and development activities
36in 2005, and
37     WHEREAS, the Congress of the United States must create a
38permanent research and development tax credit in order to
39enhance its incentive value, because companies would be able to
40count on the credit throughout the term of their multiyear
41research and development projects, and
42     WHEREAS, every time the research and development tax credit
43expires, it places this country's innovation economy at risk,
44and
45     WHEREAS, the research and development tax credit expired on
46December 31, 2009, for the 14th time since being originally
47enacted into law in 1981, and
48     WHEREAS, H.R. 422 and S. 1203 both strengthen and make
49permanent the research and development tax credit, NOW,
50THEREFORE,
51
52Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
53
54     That the Congress of the United States is urged to enact
55H.R. 422 or S. 1203 to strengthen and make permanent the
56research and development tax credit.
57     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
58dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
59President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
60United States House of Representatives, and to each member of
61the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.


CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.