HM 1351

1	House Memorial
2	A memorial to the Congress of the United States, urging
3	Congress to strengthen and make permanent the research and
4	development tax credit.
5
6	WHEREAS, research and development is a vital economic
7	component in the 21st century, generating ideas and technologies
8	that encourage productivity and economic growth, and
9	WHEREAS, research and development keeps this country's
10	companies on the cutting edge of global competitiveness,
11	providing its citizens and customers around the world the latest
12	products and services in all sectors of the global economy,
13	especially telecommunications, transportation, and medicine, and
14	WHEREAS, the research and development tax credit is
15	responsible for returning $2 to the economy for every dollar
16	spent, and
17	WHEREAS, the research and development tax credit is an
18	effective tool for stimulating additional research and
19	development, and
20	WHEREAS, domestic companies that employ high-skilled, high-
21	wage workers across this nation depend on the research and
22	development tax credit for maintaining the nation's leadership
23	in the world in technology, particularly biotechnology,
24	manufacturing, and other key areas of business, and
25	WHEREAS, the research and development tax credit stimulates
26	innovation-producing research and development investments in all
27	50 states, involving nearly 18,000 small, medium, and large
28	companies, according to a report by Ernst & Young LLP, and
29	WHEREAS, firms in all major industries claim the research
30	and development tax credit, with the principal industries
31	claiming the credit being those involved in manufacturing, the
32	provision of professional, scientific, or technical services,
33	and information technology, and
34	WHEREAS, a recent study showed nearly 2,400 firms in
35	Florida reported conducting research and development activities
36	in 2005, and
37	WHEREAS, the Congress of the United States must create a
38	permanent research and development tax credit in order to
39	enhance its incentive value, because companies would be able to
40	count on the credit throughout the term of their multiyear
41	research and development projects, and
42	WHEREAS, every time the research and development tax credit
43	expires, it places this country's innovation economy at risk,
44	and
45	WHEREAS, the research and development tax credit expired on
46	December 31, 2009, for the 14th time since being originally
47	enacted into law in 1981, and
48	WHEREAS, H.R. 422 and S. 1203 both strengthen and make
49	permanent the research and development tax credit, NOW,
50	THEREFORE,
51
52	Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
53
54	That the Congress of the United States is urged to enact
55	H.R. 422 or S. 1203 to strengthen and make permanent the
56	research and development tax credit.
57	BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
58	dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
59	President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
60	United States House of Representatives, and to each member of
61	the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.

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