The $15 billion jobs bill the Senate passed Wednesday, which exempted businesses from payroll taxes and included some highway funding, was designed as the first in a string of bills designed to address the nation’s unemployment rate.
Now, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is planning to introduce a second bill that will include an extension of unemployment insurance benefits, state Medicaid funding, a slew of extensions of tax credits and expiring programs, an extension of COBRA, Medicare physician payment update, and small business loan guarantee enhancements, according to copies of the bill obtained by The Atlantic.
Reid’s office has not confirmed the bill’s contents.
The second bill, which is more ambitious and will likely cost more than
the first, also includes a one-year extension of PATRIOT Act provisions
and satellite TV licensing, plus an extension of disaster relief
funding.
The majority leader had previously voiced support
for passing state Medicaid funding and extending unemployment
insurance, in a speech on the Senate floor. The new jobs bill extends
an increase in state Medicaid funding originated under the $787 billion
stimulus package.
Reid will likely introduce the bill as early
as next week, though no time frame has been confirmed with Reid’s
office. See a copy of the bill in .pdf format here: Jobs bill.pdf
The
majority leader has said he plans to roll out jobs legislation as a
string of bills, the first of which was passed by a 70-28 margin on
Wednesday. That $15 billion package, introduced by Reid, included
highway funds, small business tax write-offs, and an exemption on
Social Security payroll taxes for businesses who hire new workers.
The
new bill includes most of the remaining provisions from the bill rolled
out by Sens. Max Baucus (D-MT) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the chairman
and ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, on Feb. 11 (list of
provisions here).
Hours
after Baucus and Grassley unveiled their bipartisan $85 billion bill,
Reid pared it down to $15 billion, stripping most of its provisions
except the items above.
The
new bill contains certain offsets, including an exclusion of some types
of cellulosic ethanol from tax credits and modifications to the
homebuyer tax credit; it exempts much of its contents from the Senate’s
statutory pay-as-you-go rules (commonly known as pay-go, which the
Senate reinstituted Jan. 28) as emergency spending.
It does not yet have a score to determine how much it will cost.
