Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Friday that he?s chosen Sens. Jon Kyl of Arizona, Mike Crapo of Idaho and John Barrasso of Wyoming as the Senate Republican negotiators for a yearlong extension of the payroll tax holiday.
Unable to agree on a longer deal, Congress extended the current 2 percent Social Security tax cut, as well as more unemployment insurance and the reimbursement rate for doctors who provide Medicare services, through the end of February. Kyl, Crapo and Barrasso join a 20-member conference committee that will try to figure out how to extend and pay for these initiatives through the end of 2012.
Continue Reading?These three senators will help lead our efforts to focus on the areas of agreement between the House and Senate approaches to these expiring provisions,? McConnell said in a statement.
The move to create a joint House-Senate conference committee came after House Republicans refused for several days to sign on to the two-month extension that passed the Senate, 89-10. After a beating from Democrats and influential voices from within their own party, House GOP leaders bowed to pressure and approved the short-term extension, with a small tweak to ease some payroll reporting requirements for small businesses. Despite a few protests from House Republican freshmen, the extension quickly passed both chambers without dissent just two days before Christmas.
The deal also forces President Barack Obama to make a decision on the Keystone XL oil pipeline within 60 days, instead of waiting until 2013 as the administration preferred ? a GOP victory that McConnell noted in his statement.
?Both the Senate and House produced bills that require the president to quickly make a decision on whether to support thousands of U.S. manufacturing jobs through the Keystone XL pipeline, and were fully paid for without raising taxes on job creators,? McConnell said. ?Both extended current law on additional unemployment insurance payments, the temporary payroll tax holiday, seniors? access to medical care and [Temporary Assistance for Needy Families]. And both were passed with bipartisan support.?
The Kentucky Republican also cautioned against repeated short-term fixes.
?As we move into the new year, it?s crucial for everyone to realize that, once this temporary extension is behind us, the larger goal is to move beyond a discussion of temporary assistance and toward a bipartisan plan to get our economy moving again, reform the tax code and preserve and protect entitlement programs for future generations,? McConnell said.
The Senate Democratic conferees are Max Baucus of Montana, Ben Cardin of Maryland, Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania.
The House Republican conferees are Reps. Kevin Brady of Texas, Dave Camp of Michigan, Renee Ellmers of North Carolina, Nan Hayworth of New York, Tom Price of Georgia, Thomas Reed of New York, Fred Upton of Michigan and Greg Walden of Oregon. The House Democratic conferees are Reps. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Allyson Schwartz of Pennsylvania, Sander Levin of Michigan, and Xavier Becerra and Henry Waxman, both of California.
Several members of the failed deficit-slashing supercommittee are making a repeat appearance on this conference committee: Kyl, Van Hollen, Becerra, Upton, Camp and Baucus.
Crapo, who serves on the Senate Finance Committee, was also a member of the so-called Gang of Six, a bipartisan group of senators who drafted a $3.7 trillion plan to slash the deficit ? a proposal that has been largely dismissed by Senate leaders.
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