Carlos Curbelo
U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) has been working diligently on several national tax reform items as south Florida’s only member serving on the House Ways and Means Committee that also would benefit residents in his home state.
“We cover a range of issues in the House Committee on Ways and Means, which has fairly broad jurisdiction. So, I do my best to take advantage of that for the good of south Florida and for the country,” the congressman told the Ripon Advance during an Aug. 10 interview from the Florida Keys.
One piece of legislation now under consideration by the tax-writing House committee, for example, is proposed reform of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The IRS reform measure includes language from H.R. 2901, the VITA Permanence Act of 2017 introduced by Rep. Curbelo last June.
H.R. 2901 would permanently authorize the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, which the IRS oversees to provide free tax preparation and filing assistance to low-income taxpayers and members of underserved populations.
The VITA program has been around for a while, but it’s never been permanently authorized, Rep. Curbelo said.
“The program is extremely important for my community, lower-income residents and many who aren’t English proficient,” the congressman said. “We want to ensure that the program will be authorized and funded to help countless families and households file their federal tax returns, comply with the law, and access any tax benefits they have a right to under the federal tax code.
“It’s a small program that has a major impact and I’m grateful to have the opportunity to work on it,” he added.
He became interested in public service after volunteering during a high school career day to work one summer for a local politician. “I was the only one who raised my hand,” said Rep. Curbelo, who went on to graduate from the University of Miami in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and then again in 2011 with a master’s degree in public administration.
After graduation, Rep. Curbelo launched his own public and media relations firm, which he ran for 12 years, and his subsequent political career seemingly started to move at fast-track speed.
In 2009, he became state director for former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux (R-FL), for whom he managed staff in seven of the senator’s Florida offices and advised LeMieux on Latin-American policy and Hispanic issues, according to Rep. Curbelo’s Facebook page.
Shortly thereafter, Rep. Curbelo was appointed to the Miami-Dade Metropolitan Planning Organization, a group of community leaders tasked with prioritizing local transportation and infrastructure projects, and in 2010 was elected to the Miami-Dade County School Board.
In 2014, Rep. Curbelo got elected to represent Florida’s 26th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives and was re-elected to serve his second term in 2016. He wants to continue fighting for south Florida residents and hopes to retain his seat again during November’s mid-term elections.
Another tax reform issue he’s working on in the House Ways and Means Committee is the Small Business Tax Equity Act, H.R. 1810, a bipartisan bill he introduced last March that has 46 cosponsors and would provide tax parity to legal state-regulated marijuana businesses.
“In 2016, the state had a high-turnout election and 71 percent of residents voted to legalize medical marijuana,” the congressman told Ripon Advance, adding that more than 30 states now allow such medicinal marijuana operations, “but the federal government hasn’t reacted yet to this new reality.”
Without a federal law on the books, legally licensed marijuana businesses can’t deduct business expenses from their tax revenues, unlike other businesses operating around the country.
“All of these business owners in Florida right now are aggrieved by this policy,” Rep. Curbelo said, noting that legal, state-regulated marijuana business owners who aren’t permitted to deduct their related expenses in some instances suffer tax rates as high as 90 percent. “It’s both unfair and unconstitutional,” the lawmaker said.
H.R. 1810 would amend the Internal Revenue Code to exempt a trade or business that conducts marijuana sales in compliance with state law from the prohibition against allowing business-related tax credits or deductions for expenditures in connection with trafficking in controlled substances, according to the congressional record summary.
“The bill proposes that legally licensed marijuana businesses in a state would be treated the same as any other business in the United States,” Rep. Curbelo said. An identical bill is also under consideration in the U.S. Senate.
Another important piece of legislation being reviewed by House Ways and Means is Rep. Curbelo’s MARKET CHOICE Act, H.R. 6463, which he introduced on July 23.
Specifically, H.R. 6463 would amend the Internal Revenue Code to eliminate certain fuel excise taxes and impose a tax on greenhouse gas emissions to provide revenue for maintaining and building American infrastructure, among numerous other provisions.
The revenue generated by this tax on greenhouse gas emissions would primarily be invested in roads, bridges and other infrastructure in efforts to protect coastal communities around the nation from storms and sea-level rise, and in programs to assist low-income families in paying their energy bills.
Rep. Curbelo pointed out such national priorities also are critical to his south Florida district, where he said climate changes are “provoking coastal changes,” including a rising sea level threat, tidal flooding in some areas, and saltwater intrusion into the Everglades, which houses the state’s fresh drinking water supply.
H.R. 6463 would allow investments to make coastal infrastructure more resilient, said the congressman, thereby ensuring the economic viability of communities such as those in Florida, by reducing carbon dioxide, which harms marine life, a critical economic Sunshine State component, Rep. Curbelo said.
Infrastructure investment is “perhaps the single issue that most people, as well as President Trump and Hillary Clinton, agreed on during the 2016 presidential campaign,” Rep. Curbelo said, adding that Americans still support more investments being made in the nation’s roads, bridges, public transit systems, and coastal environmental infrastructure.
The MARKET CHOICE Act has garnered praise from both environmental and energy groups across the political spectrum, as well as leaders from 34 diverse companies that support this first-of-its-kind legislation to fund America’s infrastructure modernization, reduce carbon emission levels, provide regulation stability, and repeal regressive taxes that discriminate against lower- and middle-income Americans.
H.R. 6463 “is the first major federal carbon reduction legislation lead by a Republican in nearly a decade,” said David Yarnold, president and CEO of the Audubon Society. “This is a thoughtful, serious proposal designed to address the threat that birds, people and the planet face from a changing climate.”
Yarnold said in July that the modeling scenarios for Rep. Curbelo’s bill were generated by leading experts in the field and they suggest that the bill could help reach the goals set by the Paris Accord or the Clean Power Plan.
For instance, if enacted, the bill would price carbon dioxide emissions at $24 per metric ton in 2020, setting the price to rise faster than inflation. An analysis from Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy has reported that Rep. Curbelo’s plan would cut U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions 27 percent to 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, and by 30 percent to 40 percent by 2030.
“That is hugely significant, and an idea of that scale demands our serious attention and engagement,” Yarnold said. “We hope that, with his release of this proposal, Representative Curbelo sparks a reinvigorated public discussion with decision makers of both political parties. How refreshing would it be to have a real debate about how to address climate change, rather than whether it exists or what is causing it?”
Rep. Curbelo called H.R. 6463 a “bold, big, wonderful solution” for major challenges faced by the United States.
“This new and innovative solution invests in American infrastructure, accelerates the transition to clean energy, repeals discriminatory taxes, and provides regulatory relief and stability that shows protecting our environment and strengthening the economy are not mutually exclusive,” said Rep. Curbelo.