Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois joined Grassley in making the request of Sen. William Roth of Delaware. In a letter, Grassley, Lott and Moseley-Braun specifically requested that the Chairman include in the committee's highway reauthorization tax amendment the exact Grassley/Moseley-Braun ethanol extension language that was overwhelming approved this summer by the Finance Committee during reconciliation of the budget.
"We must not give up on our efforts to reduce our nation's dangerous and growing dependence upon foreign energy. That is why, with every passing day, programs such as the ethanol incentive, which provides a domestic alternative for foreign energy, and mass transit efforts, which reduce energy used for transportation, become more and more important," they wrote in the letter to Roth.
There is "wide support for the extension from not only the Republican and Democratic Congressional leadership, but also President Clinton and Vice President Gore," Grassley, Lott and Moseley-Braun said.
In June, Finance Committee members voted 16 to four in favor of the Grassley/Moseley-Braun amendment to extend the ethanol incentive through the year 2007. The full Senate endorsed the extension one week later with a vote of 69 to 30 for ethanol. Nevertheless, the ethanol extension was not included in the final bi-partisan balanced budget approved by Congress and signed by the President in August.
Grassley has stated repeatedly that he will not give up on getting the ethanol program extended. In August, he spoke by telephone with President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore about the importance of this effort and obtained their endorsements. Grassley also secured support for an extension of ethanol's partial exemption from the highway excise tax from Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Today's move by Grassley comes as Congressional committees begin consideration of the six-year, $145 billion Intermodal Transportation Act of 1997, known as ISTEA. The Senate Finance Committee holds jurisdiction over the tax portion of the highway bill.
"Extension of the incentive is key to continued investment in expanded ethanol production throughout the Midwest. It's good for farmers and jobs in rural America. It's good for the environment. And in terms of our fight against dependence on foreign energy, the ethanol tax incentive is a bargain," Grassley said.