mr. speaker , i am pleased to rise today in support of this bill and the resilient american economy .  this act will build on our legacy of tax relief that is fueling our economy , and will extend some very important tax provisions that will keep america 's economy moving forward .  freedom and free enterprise go hand-in-hand .  and keeping tax rates low so people have more of their hard-earned money in their pockets is the right way to go .  texans want , need , and deserve to have their sales tax deduction extended .  it is vitally important for texas .  in texas , we like to say `` no new taxes. '' we finance our spending through a sales tax .  in 2004 , we made sales taxes deductible from federal taxes again , but that deduction expires in just a few weeks .  my constituents want to keep the sales tax deduction .  this bill will allow any american to choose to deduct either state sales tax or their state income tax through 2006 .  that is a great idea .  next , this bill extends the popular research and experiment tax credit .  luckily , we fine-tuned it to make it work even better .  many companies in our districts will be able to use this new alternative simplified credit .  they will be able to add good research and create new jobs because of it .  this extension and expansion of the credit are great for american jobs and our economy .  finally , we must extend the tax rate reduction on capital gains and dividends .  this pro-growth policy helped spark the economy that we are seeing today .  people and companies need to have some certainty for making decisions about long-term capital gains and dividend policy .  forcing folks to work with short-sighted tax policy just does not make sense .  we have to change that if we want to see our economy stay the course .  mr. speaker , i am proud to support this bill and urge my colleagues to support it .  