Dems Move To Phase Two Of Jobs Bill

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced Friday that he will bring a second component of President Obama’s American Jobs Act to the floor next month.

The $60 billion Rebuild America Jobs Act contains $50 billion for transportation repair projects involving highways, rail systems and airports throughout the country. It would also establish a $10 billion national infrastructure bank. The full cost of the proposed legislation would be offset by a .7% surtax levied on annual gross income in excess of $1 million.

Reid said the measure “will create hundreds of thousands of construction jobs rebuilding our roads, bridges and infrastructure.”

Led by all 47 Republicans and a trio of Democrats — Joe Lieberman (Conn.), Mark Pryor (Ark.) and Ben Nelson (Neb.) — the Senate last night filibustered a $35 billion provision of the jobs package aimed at creating or saving jobs for teachers, firefighters and policemen. Last week, the upper chamber filibustered a vote on the entire $447 billion measure.

But despite having failed twice already to push the president’s bill through the Senate, Democrats aren’t giving up. As Politico’s Scott Wong notes, Democrats are hoping to get the public on their side by forcing Republicans to keep voting down bills that independent analysts say would create jobs and grow the nation’s GDP.

Republicans, meanwhile, say they will continue to oppose any any legislation that raises taxes.

With the Senate scheduled to be off next week, the earliest the legislation could see action would be sometime during the first week of November.