A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to encourage economic development through the creation of additional empowerment zones and enterprise communities and to encourage the cleanup of contaminated brownfield sites.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Title I: Additional Empowerment Zones

Title II: New Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities

Title III: Expensing of Environmental Remediation Costs

Title I: Additional Empowerment Zones - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to increase from: (1) 9 to 11 the number of areas which may be designated as empowerment zones; (2) six to eight the number of such zones which may be in urban areas; and (3) 750,000 to 1,000,000 the aggregate population allowable in all urban area zones.

Title II: New Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities - Permits, before January 1, 1998, the designation, in the aggregate, of an additional: (1) 80 nominated areas as enterprise communities; and (2) 20 nominated areas as empowerment zones, subject to availability of eligible nominated areas.

Modifies eligibility criteria.

Prohibits: (1) applying the employment credit to the new empowerment zones; and (2) in certain developable sites, application of increased expensing provisions for certain depreciable business assets.

Modifies provisions concerning: (1) enterprise facility zone bonds; and (2) the enterprise zone business definition.

Title III: Expensing of Environmental Remediation Costs - Permits a taxpayer to treat certain hazardous substance remediation expenditures as expenses not chargeable to capital account and therefore deductible in the year in which paid or incurred.