<nobr>Feb 12, 2010</nobr>

Senate Majority Leader Unveils Jobs Amendment Without Pension Funding Relief Provisions

Late yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) unveiled a signficantly scaled-back jobs bill compared to the legislation released earlier by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and Ranking Minority Member Charles Grassley (R-IA).

Senator Reid offered a bill that contains just four elements of the Baucus-Grassley proposal: (1) the Highway Trust Fund extension to December 31; (2) the Build America Bonds expansion; (3) the Schumer-Hatch payroll tax holiday; and (4) tax code section 179 expensing (plus offsets for the cost of these provisions).

The Reid amendment does not contain the defined benefit plan funding relief provisions or extensions of other provisions that expire on February 28, including unemployment insurance, COBRA premium subsidy benefits, or the Medicare physician payment fix.

Senator Reid is attempting to set up a final vote on the scaled-down Reid amendment on Wednesday, February 24, 2010. Congress is not in session next week for the President's Day recess. Senator Reid has indicated that he supports a strategy of pushing through a number of jobs/stimulus related bills this session.

ERIC will continue to lobby in support of including the funding relief provisions in the first jobs bill to pass Congress.

A link to the Reid amendment appears below.

Questions or comments on the legislation should be addressed to Kathryn Ricard (kricard@eric.org).

###

Text Files:

Reid Amendment

Back to Previous Page