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发帖数: 29846 | 1 Excerpt from Business week:
The House on Dec. 13 passed a bill that extends the payroll tax cut and
expanded unemployment benefits through 2012. It includes a provision that
would prevent doctors from seeing their Medicare reimbursements cut starting
in January.
House Bill
The $202.4 billion House bill provided a yearlong extension of the expiring
provisions. Republicans covered the cost to the Treasury with a variety of
spending cuts and revenue increases, including a pay freeze for federal
civilian employees, Medicare premium increases for high-income taxpayers and
the sale of portions of the wireless spectrum. The House bill also would
have cut the maximum length of expanded unemployment benefits to 59 weeks
from 99 weeks and allowed states to conduct drug tests for benefits
recipients.
Senate leaders tried Dec. 16 to negotiate a bipartisan agreement, and they
discussed a yearlong extension as well as an 11-month version that would
push further decisions past the presidential election in November 2012. They
disagreed about how to pay for the bill, with Republicans favoring spending
cuts and Democrats supporting a surtax on incomes exceeding $1 million.
The Senate-passed $33 billion, two-month agreement was paid for by raising
the guarantee fees that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing
Administration charge to lenders for new mortgages.
The plan passed the Senate 89-10 on Dec. 17 with the backing of Republican
leaders. Republicans claimed credit for adding language that would require
President Barack Obama to decide within 60 days whether to approve a permit
for TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada.
The bill is HR 3630. |
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