The top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Finance Committee released a draft of the chamber's jobs bill Thursday, vowing to maintain the "bipartisan character" of their negotiations going forward. The $85 billion package -- which includes a payroll tax break for employers hiring new workers along with a blend of tax credits, infrastructure spending moves and measures to extend expiring legislation -- is the first in what Democratic leaders say will be a series of job-creation measures the Senate will address in 2010. The bill also represents a break from recent partisan history in the chamber, where the majority and minority have been loathe to collaborate on any significant legislation.
"We are pleased to present this bipartisan draft legislation," Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) said in a joint statement. "We want the bipartisan character of the discussions that led to this draft package to remain as the package is considered."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had hoped to introduce the jobs bill on Tuesday, but was stymied by the impending snowstorm and GOP negotiators' reluctance to sign on. Both Republicans and even some Democrats cautioned then that the measure wasn't ready, and expressed private concern that Reid might be speeding the process unnecessarily.
"Consistent with maintaining the spirit of bipartisanship, we believe that the appropriate timing and process will balance the goals of transparency with a desire to move expeditiously," Baucus and Grassley said Thursday. "Any efforts that needlessly rush the process through partisan means will undermine our goal of a bipartisan and transparent Senate legislative product."
The two senators added: "It is especially important that all members and the public have sufficient time -- at least 72 hours -- to review and comment on this package before the Senate begins voting on the bill because it has not gone through the regular committee process."
Democrats are expected to discuss the draft measure at a caucus luncheon Thursday, but votes on the bill will have to wait until the week of Feb. 22 unless Reid decides to bring the chamber back into session next week, canceling the scheduled President's Day recess.
The centerpiece of the jobs bill is a provision giving companies an exemption from paying Social Security taxes for the remainder of 2010 on every worker they hire who has been unemployed for at least 60 days. The proposal is popular among many lawmakers but has also sparked controversy, as some experts have questioned whether it will really create many jobs for its estimated cost of $13 billion over 10 years.
The bill also includes a one-year extension of the law governing the Highway Trust Fund, and federal subsidies for Build America Bonds, which help state and local governments fund infrastructure projects. The measure would renew several expiring tax credits, including the research and development credit, at a total cost of $31 billion. Unemployment insurance and COBRA health benefits each get three-month extensions, while the bill would postpone for seven months a scheduled cut in the payments doctors receive under Medicare. And the measure contains $6 billion worth of "timely, targeted relief" for private pension funds that suffered heavy losses in recent years.
Beyond the tax and spending provisions, the package extends the Patriot Act, the federal flood insurance program and a measure governing satellite television signals.
Notably, the measure does not address the estate tax, a legislative priority for many Republicans. But according to Baucus and Grassley, the negotiators agreed not to put off the issue much longer.
"First we will work to ensure that the scope of the Finance Committee package retains its bipartisan character," they said. "Second we are committed to timely consideration of permanent bipartisan estate and gift tax reform."
Roughly half of the bill's cost is offset by closing a variety of tax loopholes. Baucus and Grassley decided against using unspent money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program to pay for the measure, a strategy House Democrats used for their jobs bill in December but Republicans strongly oppose.
