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Congress approves payroll tax cut, Keystone deadline

After the speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives reversed himself and called for a vote on extending cuts to payroll taxes and extending unemployment insurance, a two-month compromise passed this morning.

Before the vote — on an issue both sides of the aisle and both houses of Congress said they wanted — finger pointing continued over the issue, with both sides blaming the other for the rocky road to success.

Both the House and Senate passed the bill within minutes of each other.

The proposal is a rewrite of a bipartisan compromise that passed the Senate 89-10 Saturday. It included two-month extensions of a 2-percent cut to payroll taxes, extended long-term unemployment insurance, implemented a "doc fix" to prevent a cut to Medicare payments to doctors, and requires the administration of President Barack Obama to make a decision in 60 days on issuing a permit to the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

The Senate last week rejected a proposal from the House that added several riders to the issue of the payroll tax, unemployment and the doc fix, including the Keystone requirement, which was authored by Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont.

President Barack Obama said he would veto that bill, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said it would die in that house.

After the Senate passed its compromise Saturday, Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the House would reject it, citing the fact that it was a two-month extension rather than a one-year extension.

The Senate leadership said the lawmakers in that house were unable to come to a compromise on a one-year solution, and the two-month extension was needed to give lawmakers time to reach an agreement for the rest of 2012.

Boehner did an about-face Thursday, saying he would call for an up-or-down vote on the bill, which was held this morning at 8:05 a. m. The proposal passed without objection.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., helped craft the compromise that passed this morning. He applauded Boehner's call for a vote in a press release Thursday afternoon.

"We could not allow taxes to go up on Montana families on January 1st and Keystone jobs to continue to be stuck in red tape limbo, " Baucus said. "I'm glad cooler heads prevailed and folks were able to come together, do the right thing, and pass this bipartisan compromise for the families and jobs that are depending on it. I'm looking forward to continuing to work toward a full year payroll tax cut extension along with fighting to move Keystone forward to support the jobs our state and country need right now. "

Rehberg also applauded the required vote on the passage of the Keystone permit requirement in a release Thursday, while taking shots at the Senate for not passing a one-year extension.

"For thousands of Americans who are a huge step closer to a good paying job building the Keystone XL pipeline, this is great news. These private sector jobs are shovel ready, and the sooner the president makes the right decision to issue that permit, the sooner we can put Montanans to work, " he said.

In his release, Rehberg also blasted the Senate for going on Christmas break as soon as it passed its compromise Saturday. Rehberg voted Tuesday for Boehner's call to "disagree" with the Senate version and call for a conference committee to resolve the differences between the bills. He pointed out that the Senate compromise only provides two months of benefits to Montanans in lower payroll taxes, compared to the House's 12 months.

"Instead of keeping another $1,000 of their own money next year, the average Montanan will only be able to keep an additional $167, " Rehberg said. "The Senate's refusal to come back to work from vacation has literally cost the average Montanan $833. That's shameful. This short-term extension was wrong for Montana last week, and it's wrong for them today. I'll keep working to get this problem solved the right way. "

But Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont. — whom Rehberg is challenging in the 2012 Senate election — bashed the House for its actions.

"After yet another politics-as-usual week in Washington, the House of Representatives finally got the message that most Montanans have been demanding: We can't afford a tax hike on middle-class families, " Tester said in a release Thursday. "It's too bad it took public pressure to undo another irresponsible decision that should have never been made in the first place. I'm pleased the party bosses in the House are finally on board with our plan for supporting tax relief for middle-class families and the Montana jobs that will come with the Keystone XL pipeline. "

Before the Senate compromise was crafted, Tester had said tying the Keystone pipeline or other issues to the pipeline was a mistake and just playing politics.

Aaron Murphy, a spokesman for Tester's re-election campaign, took a direct shot at Rehberg over the issue.

"Congressman Dennis Rehberg on Tuesday followed orders from his party bosses and voted against the tax relief and against the Keystone XL pipeline provision, after saying last week he supported them, " Murphy said in an email message received by the Havre Daily News Thursday. "Tonight, he's still trying to somehow blame his own fiasco on the Senate for 'refusing to come back to work' (ahem, Rehberg returned to Montana yesterday after saying he would stay in Washington 'until the job is done'). "

 

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