House Republicans were successful in passing legislation Tuesday that would extend payroll-tax cuts to 2013 and would expedite a White House decision on the Keystone XL pipeline.
The 234-193 vote sends the Republican-crafted bill to Senate Democrats who have arduously opposed the bill and have already signaled the bill would be dead-on-arrival.
Following the House vote, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) took immediate action and called for a vote in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Republicans’ top senator, Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), told Reid he needed more time to organize his conference. Reid, in turn, criticized McConnell for blocking a Senate vote on the House’s payroll package.
A vote in the upper chamber, however, will likely be the House-passed bill’s demise. Senate Democrats said that they will continue to pursue a surtax on millionaires as a pay-for for the payroll-tax holiday, a notion Republicans have argued is counter-intuitive.
Meanwhile, the White House, which threatened to veto the bill Tuesday, released a statement following the House vote that labeled Republicans as ideologues practicing gamesmanship.
“This Congress needs to do its job and stop the tax hike that’s scheduled to affect 160 million Americans in 18 days,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement. “This is not a time for Washington Republicans to score political points against the President. It’s not a time to refight old ideological battles.”
Moving forward, Congress must act on two key issues; passing extenders and an omnibus bill that keeps the government funded past Friday. However, Republicans have accused Senate Democrats for holding a House-passed, $1 trillion omnibus bill “hostage” until both parties can agree on a “more acceptable” extension of the payroll-tax package.
Democrats have defended this accusation by voicing concern over the possibility the House would pass its version of the extender and payroll bills then skip town, forcing the Senate to take up the bills without any changes.
Congress now has two days to keep the government funded past Friday and just over two weeks before Americans see their paychecks shrink in 2013.