Written Testimony of Secretary Geithner Before the Senate Finance Committee on the President's FY2013 Budget

< >Improving access to education and job training, so that our workers are the best prepared in the world for the jobs of the 21st century.Promoting manufacturing and innovation, with a particular focus on research and development and jumpstarting advanced manufacturing, so that the United States remains the world’s most competitive economy and firms create well-paying jobs here at home.Investing in infrastructure, in order to create job opportunities now and enhance productivity in the long run.The Budget includes $141 billion for Federal R&D – investments that will promote the development of a variety of high-priority technologies, from next generation robotics to nanotechnology to improved cybersecurity.  The budget also keeps spending on the National Institutes of Health steady at $31 billion.Of this, the Budget provides $2.2 billion for Federal advanced manufacturing R&D, a 19 percent increase over 2012.The Budget proposes simplifying, expanding, and making permanent the Research and Experimentation Tax Credit, to provide a crucial incentive for businesses to invest in R&D.The Budget sets aside $149 million in the National Science Foundation, an increase of $39 million above the 2012 enacted level, for basic research targeted at developing revolutionary new manufacturing technologies in partnership with the private sector.  The President’s Advanced Manufacturing Partnership invests in a national effort to develop the emerging technologies that will create high-quality manufacturing jobs.  For example, the Budget includes $21 million for the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Consortia program, a new public-private partnership that will develop road maps for long-term industrial research needs and fund research at universities and government laboratories directed at meeting those needs.The Administration also supports a range of investments and initiatives to bring about a clean energy economy and create jobs for the future, especially manufacturing jobs.  For example, the Budget provides $290 million to help meet the goal of doubling the pace of energy intensity improvements across America’s industries over the next decade, as well as funding to double the share of electricity that comes from renewable energy sources by 2035. The President’s Budget provides funding for crucial infrastructure investments.  Specifically, the Budget proposes investing $476 billion over the next six years in our nation’s surface transportation system, which builds upon our proposal to immediately invest $50 billion to help workers get back on the job.  The savings achieved through our orderly drawdown of forces in Iraq and Afghanistan will pay for these investments, with the other half of those savings used to reduce projected deficits.The Budget also calls for the creation of a National Infrastructure Bank, a bipartisan idea that will leverage private capital with more flexible financing so that we can build worthwhile projects efficiently and effectively, based on their merits.The Budget also provides significant new investments for the modernization of public schools and community colleges so that those who attend have access to a safe environment with modern technology.  Finally, the President has proposed a national effort through the $15 billion Project Rebuild to put construction workers back to work rehabilitating and refurbishing hundreds of thousands of vacant and foreclosed homes and businesses, which will also help counteract the effects of blight on home prices in affected neighborhoods.Allowing the high-income 2001 and 2003 tax cuts to expire;Setting a maximum 28 percent rate at which upper-income taxpayers could benefit from itemized deductions and certain other tax preferences to reduce their tax liability; andEliminating the carried interest loophole that allows some to pay capital gains tax rates on what is essentially compensation for services.