II 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 408 

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to modify the rules for taxexempt enterprise zone facility bonds and to extend the tax incentives 

for empowerment zones. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

FEBRUARY 5, 2015 

Ms. STABENOW (for herself and Mr. BLUNT) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance 

A BILL 

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to modify 

the rules for tax-exempt enterprise zone facility bonds 

and to extend the tax incentives for empowerment zones. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Empowering Jobs Act 

5 of 2015’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. MODIFICATION OF RULES FOR TAX-EXEMPT ENTER2 PRISE ZONE FACILITY BONDS. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Clause (i) of section 

4 1394(b)(3)(B) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is 

5 amended— 

6 (1) by striking ‘‘References’’ and inserting the 

7 following: 

8 ‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—Except as 

9 provided in subclause (II), ref10 erences’’, and 

11 (2) by adding at the end the following new sub12 clause: 

13 ‘‘(II) SPECIAL RULE FOR EM14 PLOYEE RESIDENCE TEST.—For pur15 poses of subsection (b)(6) and (c)(5) 

16 of section 1397C, an employee shall 

17 be treated as a resident of an em18 powerment zone if such employee is a 

19 resident of an empowerment zone, an 

20 enterprise community, or a qualified 

21 low-income community within an ap22 plicable nominating jurisdiction.’’. 

23 (b) DEFINITIONS.— 

24 (1) QUALIFIED LOW-INCOME COMMUNITY.— 

25 Paragraph (3) of section 1394(b) of the Internal 

26 Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by redesignating 


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1 subparagraphs (C) and (D) as subparagraphs (D) 

2 and (E), respectively, and by inserting after sub3 paragraph (B) the following new subparagraph: 

4 ‘‘(C) QUALIFIED LOW-INCOME COMMU5 NITY.—For purposes of subparagraph (B)— 

6 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘quali7 fied low-income community’ means any 

8 population census tract if— 

9 ‘‘(I) the poverty rate for such 

10 tract is at least 20 percent, or 

11 ‘‘(II) the median family income 

12 for such tract does not exceed 80 per13 cent of statewide median family in14 come (or, in the case of a tract lo15 cated within a metropolitan area, met16 ropolitan area median family income 

17 if greater). 

18 Subclause (II) shall be applied using 

19 possessionwide median family income in 

20 the case of census tracts located within a 

21 possession of the United States. 

22 ‘‘(ii) TARGETED POPULATIONS.—The 

23 Secretary shall prescribe regulations under 

24 which 1 or more targeted populations 

25 (within the meaning of section 103(20) of 


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1 the Riegle Community Development and 

2 Regulatory Improvement Act of 1994) may 

3 be treated as a qualified low-income com4 munities. 

5 ‘‘(iii) AREAS NOT WITHIN CENSUS

6 TRACTS.—In the case of an area which is 

7 not tracted for population census tracts, 

8 the equivalent county divisions (as defined 

9 by the Bureau of the Census for purposes 

10 of defining poverty areas) shall be used for 

11 purposes of determining poverty rates and 

12 median family income. 

13 ‘‘(iv) MODIFICATION OF INCOME RE14 QUIREMENT FOR CENSUS TRACTS WITHIN

15 HIGH MIGRATION RURAL COUNTIES.— 

16 ‘‘(I) IN GENERAL.—In the case 

17 of a population census tract located 

18 within a high migration rural county, 

19 clause (i)(II) shall be applied to areas 

20 not located within a metropolitan area 

21 by substituting ‘85 percent’ for ‘80 

22 percent’. 

23 ‘‘(II) HIGH MIGRATION RURAL

24 COUNTY.—For purposes of this 

25 clause, the term ‘high migration rural 


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1 county’ means any county which, dur2 ing the 20-year period ending with the 

3 year in which the most recent census 

4 was conducted, has a net out-migra5 tion of inhabitants from the county of 

6 at least 10 percent of the population 

7 of the county at the beginning of such 

8 period.’’. 

9 (2) APPLICABLE NOMINATING JURISDICTION.— 

10 Subparagraph (D) of section 1394(b)(3) of such 

11 Code, as redesignated by paragraph (1), is amended 

12 by adding at the end the following new clause: 

13 ‘‘(iii) APPLICABLE NOMINATING JU14 RISDICTION.—The term ‘applicable nomi15 nating jurisdiction’ means, with respect to 

16 any empowerment zone or enterprise com17 munity, any local government that nomi18 nated such community for designation 

19 under section 1391.’’. 

20 (c) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.— 

21 (1) Clause (iii) of section 1394(b)(3)(B) of such 

22 Code is amended by striking ‘‘or an enterprise com23 munity’’ and inserting ‘‘, an enterprise community, 

24 or a qualified low-income community within an ap25 plicable nominating jurisdiction’’. 


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1 (2) Subparagraph (D) of section 1394(b)(3) of 

2 such Code, as redesignated by subsection (b)(1), is 

3 amended by striking ‘‘DEFINITIONS’’ and inserting 

4 ‘‘OTHER DEFINITIONS’’. 

5 (d) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 

6 this section shall apply to bonds issued before, on, or after 

7 the date of the enactment of this Act and not redeemed 

8 before the date of the enactment of this Act. 

9 SEC. 3. EXTENSION OF EMPOWERMENT ZONE TAX INCEN10 TIVES. 

11 (a) IN GENERAL.—Clause (i) of section 

12 1391(d)(1)(A), as amended by the Tax Increase Preven13 tion Act of 2014, is amended by striking ‘‘December 31, 

14 2014’’ and inserting ‘‘December 31, 2016’’. 

15 (b) TREATMENT OF CERTAIN TERMINATION DATES

16 SPECIFIED IN NOMINATIONS.—In the case of a designa17 tion of an empowerment zone the nomination for which 

18 included a termination date which is contemporaneous 

19 with the date specified in subparagraph (A)(i) of section 

20 1391(d)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (as in 

21 effect before the enactment of this Act), subparagraph (B) 

22 of such section shall not apply with respect to such des23 ignation if, after the date of the enactment of this section, 

24 the entity which made such nomination amends the nomi25 nation to provide for a new termination date in such manVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:38 Feb 14, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S408.IS S408

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1 ner as the Secretary of the Treasury (or the Secretary’s 

2 designee) may provide. 

3 (c) EFFECTIVE DATES.—The amendment made by 

4 subsection (a) shall apply to periods after December 31, 

5 2014. 

Æ 


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