Senate Votes Unanimously To Repeal 3 Percent Withholding Tax

The voices of the Senate rang in harmony Thursday as the legislative body unanimously voted to repeal a law that would require government agencies to collect a 3 percent tax on payments made to individual contractors.

The 95-0 vote sends the bill to the House for final approval. President Obama has already said he would sign the repeal into law after a similar version passed the House in October. 

The House must reconsider a Senate version that includes tax incentives for businesses who hire unemployed veterans. The Vow to Hire Heroes Act is the first of three pieces of Obama’s jobs package to garner bipartisan support in the upper chamber.  

Under the act, companies that hire veterans who have been out of work for more than 4 weeks but less than 6 months would be eligible for a $2,400tax credit. A tax credit of $5,600 would be allocated to companies who hire veterans who have been looking for work for more than 6 months and would double if the potential employee suffers from service-related disabilities.  

The rare portrayal of bipartisanship is a victory for both Republicans and Democrats as they have struggled to see eye to eye on a number of issues. 

“It was not politics as usual,” said House Veterans Affairs Chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.). “As more and more of our servicemen and women come home, we need to ensure that they receive the homecoming they deserve, not an unemployment check.” 

President Obama released a statement applauding the upper chamber’s approval of the law and urged the House to act expeditiously in approval of the bill in the coming days.

“No veteran who fought for our nation should have to fight for a job when they come home, and I urge the House to pass these tax credits as well so I can sign them into law,” Obama said in a statement. “I also urge Congress to pass additional jobs proposals in the weeks ahead to help the millions of other Americans who are still looking for work.”

Obama Moves Forward With Items To Help Jobless Vets

By Andrea Salazar

President Obama is using his executive authority to try and put veterans back to work with new tools to connect returning soldiers to civilian jobs.

Obama announced those tools during a Rose Garden speech today in which he called on Congress to pass two parts of his American Jobs Act - the Returning Heroes and Wounded Warriors Tax Credits.

“We’re here today to try to take some steps to better serve today’s veterans in a rough economy,” he said. “These are the kinds of Americans who every company should want to hire. And yet…more than 850,000 veterans remain unemployed.”

The White House initiatives include an online veteran’s jobs bank, a Veteran’s Gold Card that gives veterans six months of personalized counseling and case management and My Next Move For Veterans -  a website connecting veterans with civilian jobs.

“Having served and defended our nation, it just doesn’t make sense that many of these well-trained, highly-skilled and motivated individuals can’t find a job worthy of their incredible talent,” said Matt Flavin, director of Veterans and Wounded Warrior Policy, on the increasing number of unemployed post-9/11 veterans.

Aneesh Chopra, U.S. chief technology officer, said Monday that the initiatives would use existing resources and would reduce veteran unemployment.

“These particular technology initiatives are meant to reduce the time it takes for a veteran to find an available job,” Chopra said. “That would reduce the unemployment rate, even if it hasn’t increased the net number of new jobs.

Flavin, however, emphasized that the initiatives are “not a substitute for robust congressional action” that would create jobs.

The Senate will debate the tax credits this week. The measures would give businesses up to $5,600 for hiring veterans who have been unemployed for longer than six months and up to $9,600 for hiring disabled veterans.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) followed the president’s remarks by saying that the House passed a veterans job training bill in October, which Senate has yet to act on it.