March 17, 2010
Jobs Bill Passes in Senate With 11 Votes From Republicans
By CARL HULSE
WASHINGTON — The Senate approved and sent to President Obama on Wednesday what Congressional Democrats hope will be the first in a series of bills spurring employment by providing tax breaks and other hiring incentives to businesses.
The measure, approved on a bipartisan vote of 68 to 29, would give employers an exemption from payroll taxes through the end of 2010 on workers they hire who have been unemployed for at least 60 days. It also extends the federal highway construction program and takes other steps to bolster public building projects.
After the vote Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York praised the Republicans who voted for the bill, calling it “a legislative dream.”
“Today is really a turning point,” said Mr. Schumer. “And there are two words that symbolize it — jobs and bipartisan. The American people sent us a message in Massachusetts and elsewhere. It was focus on jobs, the economy, helping the middle class stretch its paycheck. Our answer today: We heard you.”
While 11 Republicans voted for the measure, others in the party were skeptical that it would help create new jobs, or said they were distressed at its cost.
“This isn’t so much a jobs bill as it is a debt bill,” said Senator Judd Gregg, a New Hampshire Republican.
Democrats had hoped to get the measure to the White House weeks ago, to demonstrate to the public that they were responding to the bleak national employment picture. But the measure was slowed in the House by concerns among some Democrats that the bill did not do enough and by procedural obstacles in the Senate.
Even so, there were more than enough supporting votes in the Senate to jump the parliamentary hurdles. Democrats now intend to push ahead with renewing more than $30 billion in corporate tax breaks and providing additional help to small businesses.
Under the bill now heading to President Obama’s desk, businesses that hire workers who have been jobless for at least 60 days will be exempt from paying the 6.2 percent payroll tax on those employees’ earnings until the end of the year. If those workers stay on for a full year, businesses will also get a $1,000 tax credit. (The employee’s pay would still be subject to the usual personal income taxes.) The business tax breaks would add up to about $15 billion in all.
It also provides an extra $20 billion for road and bridge construction and extends the federal highway program through year’s end. The Transportation Department furloughed roughly 2,000 workers earlier this month because of a temporary freeze in the program.
