TANNER TO TAX CONFEREES: NO MORE BORROWING

- House to Debate Tanner Motion Tonight -

WASHINGTON -- Congress should not borrow more money to pay for a tax bill pending in a joint House-Senate conference committee, according to a motion Congressman John Tanner will make on the House floor this evening.

The House of Representatives will debate Tanner’s Motion to Instruct Conferees for one hour. A non-binding vote on the motion is expected to be postponed to Thursday. The floor proceedings will be aired on C-SPAN.

The federal government would need to borrow $56 billion to cover the House-passed version of the bill and $37 billion to pay for the Senate-passed version. Interest payments on the additional borrowing amount to a “debt tax” that has to be paid now and by all future generations, Tanner said.

Congress is also considering raising the public debt limit – the nation’s credit card – to $9 trillion to allow for additional spending by the Bush administration and Congress.

The text of Congressman Tanner’s Motion to Instruct Conferees:

Mr. Tanner of Tennessee moves that the managers on the part of the House at the conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses on the Senate amendment to the bill H.R. 4297 be instructed, to the maximum extent possible within the scope of conference, to insist on a conference report which will neither increase the Federal budget deficit nor increase the amount of the debt subject to the public debt limit.

Tanner represents Tennessee’s 8^th Congressional district. He serves on the House Ways and Means Committee and is a leader of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of 37 House Democrats focused on fiscal responsibility.

# # #

Contact: Randy Ford, 202.225.4714