Date: 2003-11-05
Speaker: SAM JOHNSON (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker. I am proud to stand before the House today in support of the Military Family Tax Relief Act. I want to start out today by saying how extremely proud I am of the men and women who serve in our military. No matter where I go. I have absolute rapt attention from everyone when I talk about the members of our Armed Forces. I hope our troops know that. All across the Nation. citizens are proud of the work our troops do and Americans are grateful for the sacrifices that they and their families make for the defense of our Nation. This bill doubles the military death benefit gratuity to $12.000 and excludes from taxation that whole amount. Just last week we passed this concept for the third time. This will be the last time this Congress will need to vote on this bill because this version has been approved by our colleagues on the Senate side of the Capitol. and we will be passing the exact bill so that President Bush can sign it into law. This bill is also retroactive to September 11. 2001. so that all of our men and women who have died in service of their country since that day will receive this benefit. This is what a grateful country does for the families of those servicemembers. I am proud that we will be fixing the problem of having a knock at the door by the military chaplain which will no longer be followed by a knock at the door from the tax man. This bill does that and more. It will also make taxes a smaller problem for active military and reserves. The Military Families Tax Relief Act provides reasonable accommodations to members of the military so that they too can benefit from the current $500.000 exclusion from capital gains on the sale of a home. To get this exclusion. a family must live in a home for at least 2 of the previous 5 years. This is generally a reasonable requirement. but for those serving in the military such a requirement is out of their control when orders ship them to any of the four corners of the Earth. As a 29year veteran of the Air Force. my wife and I moved many times. In the last 7 years we had seven different moves. So I know firsthand about being transferred. And sometimes you live in base housing. and sometimes you live in your own home. IJ 1200 It was a part of the job then and it still is today. and I think it is a reasonable accommodation for the tax code to hold them harmless for those times when they are not living in their homes. As long as the servicemember or his or her family have lived in the home for 2 years. the tax code will hold them harmless for years away from home at distant postings. Servicemembers are not going to be able to become real estate moguls by buying properties all over the country and getting this treatment for each. Only one property at a time is eligible for this exclusion. I am glad to report that another provision I have been working on has also been included. It will permit students at our Nations military academies to be treated as being on scholarship for purposes of Section 529 education savings accounts. It is only the United States military academy students who are not eligible for this benefit. Serving this country is a noble profession. Congress will now encourage. not discourage. young people to join our Armed Forces. especially today. I think when hardworking. patriotic young Americans are rewarded with an appointment to a service academy we should not turn around and impose a 10 percent penalty on their parents who saved for their childrens education. We should provide the same penaltyfree withdrawals for the plebe. the middy and the cadet as we provide for those who play sports. earn an academic scholarship or pay for school through ROTC. This is a great bill. It is long overdue. It has been a long time since 9/11. and we are trying to take care of our military. and this is retroactive back to that point. Mr. Speaker. I reserve the balance of my time.