Year-End Spending Package Includes Wins for Biodiesel, Disaster Affected Areas

Washington – Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) made the following comments on the deal reached by lawmakers regarding temporary tax code provisions also known as “extenders.”

 

“After years of uncertainty for many Americans, we’ve finally come to an agreement on the future of these temporary tax policies. Many people in my state, farmers and processors alike, can breathe a sigh of relief that Congress will extend the biodiesel tax credit retroactively and through 2022. That industry employs more than 60,000 Americans, including thousands of Iowans. This extension provides important, longer-term stability for them and their communities. As chairman of the Finance Committee, I led the effort to get this top priority done.

 

“We are also extending tax relief needed to help rebuild in areas where natural disasters have devastated homes and businesses. This will help people in Iowa who saw historic, damaging floods in 2019 as well as Californians and others who’ve endured some of the biggest wildfires in recent history.

 

“We found a path to extend a small but significant set of policies by negotiating through midnight last night. This may not be the package I’d have pushed for on my own, but it’s a reasonable way forward that provides certainty where before there was only anxiety for many Americans.”

 

The package includes the extensions of the following policies:

·        Multi-year extension of the Biodiesel Tax Credit through (2022);

·        Multi-year extension of the Short-line Railroad Tax Credit (through 2022);

·        Extension of disaster tax relief;

·        Single-year extension of the Wind Energy Production Tax Credit;

·        Resolution of tax-exempt organization parking tax;

·        Clarification of the tax benefits for rural electric cooperatives (RURAL Act).

Full text of the legislative package can be found HERE.