Payroll Tax Battle Heads To Senate

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.

Senate GOP'ers Blast Obama For Threatening To Veto Payroll Plan

Republican leaders in the upper chamber blasted President Obama Tuesday for threatening to veto legislation ending payroll relief that includes language requiring the president to sign off on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. 

Following a closed-door luncheon, Republican senators explained that the balanced function of their version of the payroll tax holiday, arguing the Keystone XL Pipeline is estimated to produce an immediate 20,000 jobs and that other language rolling back regulations on the EPA’s Maximum Achievable Control Technology would ultimately save jobs. 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell offered his support for the current GOP payroll tax package, calling it a bipartisan bill that deserves to be passed. 

“This has been a very balanced package put together by the House designed to appeal to both Republicans and Democrats.”

McConnell also fired on Democrats for signaling that they may withhold a vote on the omnibus bill until language is changed in the Republican payroll plan.

 “It’s appropriate to ask the President and the Majority Leader why they want to undo a deal that was already made and threaten to shut down the government here a week before Christmas,” McConnell said. 

“This is a rarity around here,” McConnell enumerated. “We’ve got a bipartisan agreement on a number of appropriations bills and the President, presumably in order to create some political issue - which I find difficult to understand - has instructed Democratic senators not to sign the conference report on a bill they support.”

Hoyer: Republicans Have Broken Their Promise

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) accused Republicans on Tuesday of reneging on a promise they made last year to not attach policy riders to necessary legislation.

“In the Pledge to America, the Republicans said this: ‘We will end the practice of packaging unpopular bills with must pass legislation to circumvent the will of the American people,’” Hoyer quoted.

“That’s what they’re doing,” he said. “They said they wouldn’t do it, they’re breaking their pledge, they are doing it. They’re doing it because it’s politically expedient to do it, not because they think it will pass.”

Hoyer referred to the GOP’s payroll tax cut extension plan as “political gamesmanship” because they were explicitly told by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that his chamber would not pass their bill.

The inclusion of the Keystone XL Pipeline mandate, which President Obama said would be grounds for vetoing the bill as a whole if it reached his desk, is further proof of Republicans’ partisan policy, according to Hoyer.

Hoyer, a longtime advocate for federal workers, continued to criticize the package for breaking the deal made in the Budget Control Act. Included in the GOP payroll tax package is an extension of the federal base pay freeze, which, according to Hoyer, would decrease the agreed upon “discretionary number” for federal employees. If the freeze extension is passed, $60 billion would be taken from federal employees’ salaries over the next decade.

With a number of issues still on the table and less than a week before the House is set to break for the holidays, Hoyer expressed concern that the session would be extended.

“This is theoretically the last week of the session,” Hoyer remarked. “I say that hopefully, but not with a good deal of confidence.”

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.

Pipeline Bill Would Force US Permit For Keystone XL Within 60 Days

Senate Republicans introduced legislation Wednesday that would expedite the issuance of a permit to TransCanada Corp. for its Keystone XL pipeline.

The 1,700 mile pipeline has been met with some opposition over its initial route through the Sandhills area of Nebraska which overlay water aquifers that provide about 1.5 million people with water. According to a statement released by the group of lawmakers, the route through Nebraska has been redrawn in cooperation with TransCanada.

The State Department, which has jurisdiction over the project because it would cross international borders, has delayed a decision on the project for nearly a year. Republican senators argued that the delay was not only costing the country tens of thousands of jobs, but it was a perfect example of how President Obama has dedicated himself to the 2012 campaign. 

“President Obama has the opportunity to help create 20,000 new jobs now,” Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.). “Incredibly, he’s delayed a decision until after the 2012 election apparently in fear of offending a part of his political base.”

The pipeline would extend from Alberta, Canada to the the Gulf Coast of Texas and would extract nearly 700,000 new barrels a day, a figure Republican senators argue would significantly decrease the nation’s dependence on foreign oil. 

“The Obama administration has failed to produce a persuasive domestic strategy to reduce foreign oil dependence, and now it is failing to grasp the potential of energy security within North America,” Lugar said. 

If passed, the bill would give the State Department 60 days to issue TransCanada a permit to begin work on the Keystone XL pipeline but would exclude work in Nebraska until the state’s environmental regulators and the EPA approve of the newly proposed route.