Twenty-two members of Congress, all members of the House General Aviation Caucus, are urging House leaders to reject a tax proposal that could hinder one of the few manufacturing industries that provide a trade surplus for the U.S.
As lawmakers continue with debt-ceiling negotiations, the House members urged key players in the negotiations not to sacrifice aircraft depreciation deductions in the tax code, which spur “investment, domestic manufacturing, and economic growth.” They reminded House Speaker John Boehner, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of the important role of the general aviation industry and GA aircraft depreciation to the country’s economic recovery and well being.
Congressmen Graves and Barrow, co-chairs of the House GA Caucus, led the effort by requesting that any proposal which would increase taxes on the general aviation industry be rejected.
“While we support reasonable measures to confront our fiscal challenges, arbitrarily increasing taxes on a single industry is a mistake,” the members of Congress wrote. “Simply put, removing sound and effective tax policies that incentivize investment in our economy will not help the private sector to lead us out of our economic recession.”
The GA industry provides more than 1.2 million jobs in the United States and is one of the few remaining domestic manufacturing industries that provide a trade surplus for the U.S., the lawmakers wrote. While GA aircraft are an essential part of the American transportation system, they wrote, attacks on the use of business aircraft during the economic downturn “depress new aircraft sales and jeopardize skilled, high-paying jobs. These misguided attacks do not serve our broader goals of strengthening our economy, domestic manufacturing, or creating jobs.”
“We applaud the efforts of all who signed this important letter to try and protect the 1.2 million jobs in our industry, highlighting what a key economic engine our general aviation is to our nation’s economy,” said AOPA Vice President of Legislative Affairs Lorraine Howerton.
President Barack Obama made disparaging remarks about users of business aircraft recently while criticizing the depreciation policy for GA aircraft.
Members of the House who signed
- Sam Graves (R-Mo.)
- John Barrow (D-Ga.)
- Billy Long (R-Mo.)
- Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.)
- Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.)
- Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.)
- Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.)
- Lou Barletta (R-Pa.)
- Lynn Jenkins (R-Kan.)
- Donald Manzullo (R-Ill.)
- Leonard Boswell (D-Iowa)
- Howard Coble (R-N.C.)
- Jack Kingston (R-Ga.)
- Bill Shuster (R-Pa.)
- Thomas Petri (R-Wis.)
- Aaron Schock (R-Ill.)
- Randy Hultgren (R-Ill.)
- Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.)
- John Duncan (R-Ten.)
- Bill Posey (R-Fla.)
- Chip Cravaack (R-Min.)
- Don Young (R-Alaska).
