House GOP Announce Bill Extending Payroll Tax Cut, Approving Keystone Pipeline

By Andrea Salazar

House GOP leadership Thursday announced that they expect a vote on extending Social Security payroll tax cuts next week.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said, at news conference, that the bill would also include an extension and reform of unemployment benefits and approval for the Keystone XL Pipeline, despite President Obama’s threat to veto any bill linked to the oil pipeline.

“Mr. President, we will have some of your ideas in this bill, but maybe it’s time to try some of ours. Do not veto this jobs bill,”  said Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas).

Acknowledging that the bill does not include everything both sides asked for, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said it “does make some progress.”

“This bill does ensure that we abide by the principle that we want people to keep more of their hard-earned money, and this bill does have some incremental steps towards continued efforts of economic growth,” Cantor said.

But Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.), ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee, said Republicans have “chosen a path of confrontation instead of the search for common ground.”

“The president said he’d veto it,” Levin said at a briefing on extending unemployment benefits. “So instead of reaching out…they’re trying to undercut the president.”

Janie Amaya contributed to this story.

GOP Leaders Downplay Dip In Jobless Rate

House GOP leaders downplayed the dip in the nation’s unemployment rate from 9 percent to 8.6 percent Friday morning, the lowest recorded rate in nearly three years.

“Today’s unemployment numbers certainly look good on its surface,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said at a Friday press conference. “If you look at the number of new jobs created, there’s just not enough new jobs being created in America.”

According to the latest unemployment numbers, the economy added 120,000 jobs in November. Despite seeing jobs totals reach at least 100,000 in the past three months - September numbers were revised showing 210,000 new jobs were added, an uptick of 52,000 from the initial report - House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) voiced his concern over the period of time in which the jobless rate has remained above 8 percent. 

“The jobless rate in our country is still unacceptably high, Boehner said. “Today marks the 34th consecutive month of unemployment above eight percent.”

Though Republican leaders welcomed the dip in the unemployment rate as “good news,” they remained skeptical of Obama’s economic agenda. Boehner used the opportunity to call on President Obama and the Democratic-controlled Senate to take up 25 House-passed bills, all of which are considered job creators by House Republicans.

“It is time for the president to admit, after being able to enact all the major tenants of his agenda… that ultimately his policies are not working,” Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) said. “We would ask Mr. President to please asks Mr. Reid to pass our jobs bills.”

House Prepares To Take Up Balanced Budget Amendment

By Mike Hothi

The House is set to vote on a balanced-budget amendment (BBA) by the end of the week.

Passing the amendment would require a two-thirds majority vote in the House, a number that is unattainable without Democratic support.

“[I] hope that this passes,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) told reporters Tuesday. “I will be voting for it because I do think ultimately that the biggest check we can put on the government’s unbridled spending is a forced balanced budget amendment like most states have.”

Although in support, Cantor expressed a desire to see stronger version of the proposed amendment, noting that in its current form, the BBA does not include a spending cap or provide supermajority voting requirement to increase taxes like many Republicans had hoped for.

On the other side of the aisle, Democratic leaders are holding firm in their opposition to the amendment.

The bill would have to pass by a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate before being ratified by three-quarters of the states to take effect.

No Presidential signature is required for a Constitutional amendment but the Obama administration did release a statement Tuesday warning that it “would impose serious risks for our economy… by requiring the government to raise taxes and cut spending in the face of a contraction, which would accelerate job losses.”

The administration emphasized the importance of finding a bipartisan solution to the country’s economic woes instead.

Cantor Says Sequester Won't Be Applicable Come Thanksgiving

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Monday that there is no threat of a sequester as a result of failed negotiations by a 12-member panel tasked with cutting at least $1.2 trillion in savings by Nov. 23.  

“I don’t think a sequester will be applicable because I believe [the Joint Select Committee] will reach an agreement before the deadline,” Cantor told reporters during his weekly press conference.

Cantor tiptoed around an onslaught of questions focused on the deficit panel, saying that, having been a part of this summer’s Biden-led negotiations on raising the nation’s debt ceiling, he wanted to avoid adding pressure on the committee. 

“I want them to do their work without added pressure from me,” Cantor said.  

Although Cantor remains hopeful that a deal will be reached within the next 9 days, the substance coming from inside the “super committee” has indicated otherwise.  

The “breakthroughs” that resulted from Democratic concessions to slash entitlements and Republican proposals that put new revenues on the table were diminished before Congress broke for the holiday. 

Cantor: American Jobs Act Is DOA

By Andrea Salazar

President Obama’s $447 billion jobs bill, as a package, is dead. 

That according to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who said Monday at his weekly briefing that the president’s “all or nothing approach is just unacceptable.”

Elements of that jobs bill are on the table, though. The House, over the next month, will pass bills to help small business owners, to make the 3 percent withholding provision permanent and to make free-trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, Cantor said.

“We’ve seen enough of the divide,” he said. “And that’s why I say that if nothing else, we should certainly focus on trying to put some wins on the board, stop magnifying the differences [and] try and focus on the commonalities.”

While emphasizing the need for Republicans and Democrats to work together, Cantor also pointed out that “we’ve got a terrible environment for entrepreneurs” and called for less government regulation on businesses. 

“Our country is being paralyzed by Washington over-regulation and a Washington-knows-best mentality coming from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.,” the majority leader said.

The president, however, still expects Congress to pass his jobs bill.

“It’s been several weeks now since I sent up the American Jobs Act and, as I’ve been saying on the road, I want it back. I’m ready to sign it,” Obama said on Monday morning.