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Home / Press Releases - 2005 / AWB Asks Washington Delegation to Support Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 |
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AWB Asks Washington Delegation to Support Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 |
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Written On: November 08, 2005 |
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OLYMPIA - The Association of Washington Business is urging the state’s nine U.S. House members to support the “Deficit Reduction Act of 2005” when it comes up for a vote this week.
“If it passes, they can move onto much needed tax cuts for small businesses,” AWB President Don Brunell said. “It is important to our state’s small employers because our state’s tax structure places an unusually high tax burden on business.”
The Act slows the expected growth of mandatory federal spending by $53.9 billion over the next five years. Without this effort, Congress would not otherwise review mandatory spending—programs that have remained fundamentally unchanged for decades would continue to grow, costing hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars, and wasting money through fraud and abuse. The proposals in this bill contain total budget-directed savings of $34.7 billion.
“This legislation contains important energy language that provides an affordable and reliable energy supply,” Brunell said. “Passing the act is essential to helping U.S. businesses grow and remain internationally competitive.”
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita impaired a significant amount of oil and natural gas production and gasoline refining. Environmental activists are trying to remove provisions of the bill that would allow energy exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) areas off the nation’s coast.
The amount of energy resources in the OCS is vast. The natural gas that is located on the OCS off the lower 48 states alone would satisfy all industrial and commercial needs for almost 30 years. The projected amount of oil would provide a 15-year supply of gasoline for 116 million cars and heating oil for 47 million homes.
ANWR is another major source of untapped energy resources. As one of America’s greatest prospects for future domestic oil exploration, ANWR contains a conservatively estimated 10.4 billion barrels of oil. These much needed energy supplies, which companies will produce in line with strict environmental standards, are necessary to control spiking energy costs in the U.S.
Brunell indicated this vote would be included in AWB’s 2005 Congressional voting record. The legislation has already cleared the U.S. Senate.
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