Senate Jobs Bill On Tap For Monday

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that the chamber will move ahead with votes on its first major piece of legislation since Republican cott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts last month gave Republicans 41 seats in the Senate and busted the Democrats’ 60-seat filibuster-proof majority.

Reid said the Senate will take up a jobs bill that President Obama has directed congressional Democrats to make their “number one” priority this year, ahead of a stalled effort to produce health care legislation. The bill is seen as broadly bipartisan and something Republicans and moderate Democrats can support, filled with tax cuts and tax breaks for businesses hiring new workers as well as aid for unemployed Americans.

Reid said that Senate Democrats “want to work with Republicans” in passing the jobs legislation next week.

 

Senate leaders plan to pass a jobs bill next week as key Democrats and Republicans neared agreement Thursday on a proposal to give businesses a tax break for hiring unemployed workers.

Passage would mark a rare bipartisan achievement in a Congress that has been sharply divided along political lines.

The Senate will start work on the bill Monday, said Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. If bill is passed by the end of next week, when the Senate takes a President’s Day break, it would hand President Barack Obama a badly needed political victory.

Senate leaders plan to pass a jobs bill next week as key Democrats and Republicans neared agreement Thursday on a proposal to give businesses a tax break for hiring unemployed workers.

Passage would mark a rare bipartisan achievement in a Congress that has been sharply divided along political lines.

The Senate will start work on the bill Monday, said Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. If bill is passed by the end of next week, when the Senate takes a President’s Day break, it would hand President Barack Obama a badly needed political victory.

 

Despite including proposals like tax cuts  that should bring broad bipartisan consensus, Republicans are waiting to see the exact contents of the legislation before they agree to let it come up for a vote, a power which they now have with Scott Brown sworn in on Thursday.

Senate Republicans are wary of backing a measure that will allow the president and Democrats to claim a major legislative victory and show the public that they are moving fast on jobs and the struggling economy.

“I watched the Democrat leadership’s press conference just now and what I learned is that there will be a vote Monday on ‘a bill,’” said Don Stewart, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. “But that they don’t know what’s in the bill or how many jobs they expect it to ’save or create,’ or when anyone beyond the Beltway will see it, or how much it will cost. They did have a nice sign, though, and a pretty handout, so they obviously gave this some thought.”

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