Policy Action Center

The Travel Tech Policy Action Center provides updates about key legislation impacting the travel technology industry. It also offers industry members a means to communicate directly with their elected representatives and show support for key travel tech public policy priorities.

Tell Your Senator to Support Permanent R&D Expensing and Bonus Depreciation

Urge your Senators to make these pro-innovation tax reforms permanent in reconciliation

Startups and high-growth businesses rely on stable, forward-looking tax policy to invest in new products, expand their teams, and compete globally. But current law requires companies to amortize domestic R&D expenses over five years – and foreign R&D over fifteen – making it harder to fund innovation and plan long term.

The House-passed reconciliation bill temporarily restores full domestic R&D expensing and extends 100% bonus depreciation through 2029. But temporary fixes don’t provide the long-term certainty businesses need.

Travel Tech is urging the Senate to go further: Make full R&D expensing and 100% bonus depreciation permanent in the Senate’s version of the reconciliation package. These are not partisan provisions. They’re critical to unlocking sustained private-sector investment and innovation.

Take Action

Tell Your Senator to Support S. 695, the Small Business Investment Act of 2025

Urge your Senator to support including S. 695 in the Senate’s reconciliation package

Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) has introduced S. 695, the Small Business Investment Act of 2025, to improve access to capital for startups and early-stage businesses. This bill is the Senate companion to H.R. 1199, which Travel Tech previously highlighted at our Startup Summit. It would modernize the tax treatment of Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) under Section 1202 of the Internal Revenue Code – making it easier for entrepreneurs to attract investment, grow, and hire.

What the bill does

The Small Business Investment Act would:

  • Reduce the QSBS holding period from 5 years to 3 years, with a phased capital gains exclusion (50% after 3 years, 75% after 4, and 100% after 5).
  • Extend QSBS eligibility to S corporations – not just C corporations.
  • Allow startup investors to convert debt into equity and still qualify for the same tax benefits – making it easier to fund early growth.

These changes would unlock new pathways for early-stage funding and give startups the flexibility they need to grow in competitive, fast-moving industries like travel tech.

Why it matters

Modernizing QSBS rules strengthens the startup ecosystem that powers U.S. innovation. In the travel technology sector, startups drive everything from smarter booking platforms to personalized AI-driven trip planning tools. S. 695 would make investment in these companies more attractive and reduce the barriers that prevent them from scaling.

Travel Tech urges the Senate to include this bill in the upcoming reconciliation package.

Please take two minutes to add your voice by submitting the letter below.

Thank you for your support.

Take Action