CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
Feb. 1, 2012 – 10:25 p.m.
Payroll Panel Tackles Easy Issues First
By Sam Goldfarb, CQ Staff
Lawmakers trying to extend a payroll tax cut and other expiring programs are picking up the pace of negotiations as they begin to feel the pinch of their approaching deadline.
After waiting a week to hold their second public meeting, members of a House-Senate conference committee on a yearlong extensions bill (
In one of the first signs that the panel is making progress, a senior Senate Democrat said Wednesday that his party is interested in some Republican ideas about how to improve the federal unemployment benefits program. Senate Finance Chairman
Lawmakers from both parties, Baucus said, would like to reduce the number of unemployment checks that are given to people who are ineligible to receive them. And there is a broad sense that job search requirements should be made more uniform across state lines and that states should have greater flexibility to design new kinds of job training programs, he said.
Baucus, the vice chairman of the conference committee, said it is important for the panel “to make some headway” before the end of this week.
Still, he acknowledged that any agreement forged over the next few days is likely to be minor compared with the difficult issues facing the panel.
Before the expiration of popular federal programs at the end of February, lawmakers must confront a host of unanswered questions, including how to pay for legislation that is expected to cost at least $160 billion over 10 years.
In addition to renewing benefits for some workers who have been unemployed for more than a half-year, lawmakers want to renew a payroll tax cut first enacted in 2010, which has reduced the Social Security tax levied on employees to 4.2 percent from 6.2 percent. And they want to preserve a change in Medicare reimbursement rates that is preventing a 27 percent payment cut to doctors.
Lawmakers hope to continue the payroll tax cut and long-term jobless benefits through the end of the year, and to extend the Medicare “doc fix” for at least that long.
Disagreements Persist
Stymied by an inability to agree about how to pay for the measure, the House and Senate settled for a two-month extension (PL 112-78) of all three programs in December.
And despite the tight deadline imposed by the scheduled expiration of the programs at the end of February, conferees appear far from a deal. Notably, the parties remain at odds over how long jobless workers should be able to collect benefits and whether the cost of an extension should be offset with spending cuts or revenue increases.
Underscoring the gap between the two parties, members of the conference committee barely delved into the most difficult subjects in their meeting Wednesday. Instead, they debated such questions as whether recipients of unemployment benefits should be subject to drug testing and be required to seek the equivalent of a high-school diploma if they do not have one.
Payroll Panel Tackles Easy Issues First
While Democrats accused Republicans of trying to punish the unemployed, Republicans said they were only trying to help people find jobs.
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Briefly addressing the payroll tax cut, lawmakers from both parties agreed it should be continued through December, but debate on possible ways to offset the cost was left for another day.
Meanwhile, a few lawmakers from both parties said they would like to find a permanent solution for the physician reimbursement rate issue.
After the meeting, Michigan Republican