12.21.11
House GOP Fine with Increasing Taxes on Workers, and Leaving the Unemployed Out in the Cold During the Holidays
Yesterday the House of Representatives voted against (1) providing an immediate tax cut to low and middle income wage earners (the payroll tax holiday extension) and (2) against extending Unemployment Insurance (UI) for the long term unemployed. In deciding against extending these two vitally important programs for working families, the House Leadership refused to even allow a vote on a Senate compromise bill that passed over the weekend in overwhelming, bipartisan fashion, 89-10. That Senate compromise was agreed to by both Republicans and Democrats, only to see the House leadership earlier this week walk away from the agreement.
Senate and House Action Prior to Yesterday
The Senate passed compromise bill came about because the Senate had previously considered legislation sponsored by Senator Casey, S. 1917, to extend these important programs for one year, and paying for them by issuing a modest surtax on any income in excess of $1 million. While not able to get the 60 votes required to overcome a filibuster threat, the December 1st cloture motion aimed at ending a filibuster did garner 51 votes, representing a majority of support for the legislation in the Senate. IFPTE supported that bill (see attached letter).
For their part, the House also passed a bill to extend these programs. That bill (HR 3630), which passed the House on December 13th by a vote of 234-193, did extend the payroll tax holiday for one year, and extended the long-term UI program. However, it shortened the long-term UI program from 99 weeks to 59 weeks, and paid for the bill by extending the federal employee pay freeze and increasing federal employee pension contributions without any corresponding increase in benefits. It did several other draconian things as well - more than enough for IFPTE to oppose the legislation (see December 13th IFPTE letter attached here).
It should also be noted that in response to these continued attacks on federal workers, IFPTE did put a pay freeze calculator up on our webpage so our members, and federal employees in general, can get a very good idea of the impact the pay freeze is having on their salaries, and pass along that information to their members of Congress. You can access the pay freeze calculator here.
The Bipartisan Compromise
Because of the differences in the House and Senate bills, and given that the Holidays and the end of the year are fastly approaching, Congressional Republicans and Democrats agreed to a compromise, two month extension. That compromise, which passed the Senate by a vote of 89-10 last Saturday, extended the payroll tax holiday and the UI extension, among other things, for two months, and included Republican priorities such as the Keystone pipeline project and eliminating the surtax on any income over $1 million as the pay-for. It did not include any of the draconian federal employee provisions that were in the House passed bill. Instead that bill is paid for through additional fees that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac charge to mortgage lenders. The idea was to pass the compromise now so that the tax cut for working families, and the UI benefits for the unemployed would not lapse through the Holidays and into the early weeks of next year, while allowing lawmakers the opportunity to revisit this issue early next year before the two month extensions concluded. Eighty nine Senators, of all political stripes, agreed and passed the compromise.
House Leadership Action Yesterday
What the House Leadership did yesterday was refuse to even vote on the compromise that they had previously agreed to, and that passed the Senate with such overwhelming, bipartisan support. Unless they agree to come back to DC next week, after Christmas, and pass the Senate compromise bill, the House has essentially decided to increase taxes on middle and lower income earners, and allow much needed UI benefits to expire for 2 million of our nation’s long-term unemployed (2 million on January 1st, and as many as 6 million going into the early months of next year). If the House leadership would have allowed the Senate compromise to be voted on it may have very well passed.
The House voted on several bills yesterday related to this issue, but not the Senate compromise. The legislation that was most reflective of the House’s unwillingness to approve the Senate compromise was a simple motion to appoint conferees, thereby agreeing to NOT consider the Senate compromise bill. If your Representative voted “YES” on this bill, they voted against immediately extending tax cuts for working Americans, and against extending much needed UI benefits to the long term unemployed. A “NO” vote is reflective of a member’s support for passing the Senate compromise. Here is the vote tally.
Moving Forward
This issue is likely to be revisited, possibly as early as next week? Hopefully the House will come back next week and pass the Senate compromise. If not, it is very likely that this issue will not be addressed again until late January, at the earliest, when the Congress comes back for the new year. Regardless, IFPTE will remain vigilant in our work on this. As we have been arguing, we will support the UI extension and the payroll tax holiday extension, while aggressively fighting against another pay freeze for federal workers, or any other attacks on the pensions of civil servants. We will keep you all posted as things continue to develop.
In the meantime, please feel free to share this information with your members, particularly the vote in the House yesterday. As you all know, IFPTE believes that all members should see first-hand how their Congressionals are voting on important legislation that directly impact their lives.
Read IFPTE update on the latest involving the extension of the payroll tax holiday and the long term unemployment insurance program.