Congress returns from a blizzard-lengthened two-week break Monday, and the Senate immediately faces a crucial test vote on a stripped-down jobs measure.þþSenator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, has been trying to round up a few Republican votes for his version of a jobs bill,after he surprised the Senate and the White House by jettisoning many elements of a bipartisan proposal that had some momentum.þþMr. Reid’s $15 billion plan includes four central elements of that proposal, including a payroll tax exemption for companies that hire unemployed workers, but he dropped billions of dollars in business tax breaks and other extraneous initiatives.þþWhether Mr. Reid can prevail remains uncertain and he now needs at least two Republicans to join Democrats to overcome any Republican opposition since Senator Frank Lautenberg, the New Jersey Democrat who was taken ill last week, is not expected to be present and voting.þþIn a warning to those intending to block the bill, Mr. Reid’s aides have let it be known that a Republican filibuster of his jobs plan does not mean that he will then turn around and offer the earlier bipartisan version. But just exactly what he will do is not clear.þþOn Sunday, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, wouldn’t tip his hand on what Republicans were going to do but he also did not say that Republicans were ready to thwart any jobs bill.þþ“He needs to bring up the bill,” Mr. McConnell said on Fox News, “we need to have amendments and vote on it.”þþWith Democrats intensifying their criticism of Republicans for opposing almost all legislation and erecting procedural hurdles even to measures and nominees they ultimately support, Mr. McConnell was also a bit defensive over suggestions that Republicans are simply tying up Washington.þþ“My members were not sent here to do nothing, and the president knows that and he has said it,” Mr. McConnell said. “We have accomplished much for the American people; it’s just that we are unwilling to approve their partisan agenda to take over health care and raise energy taxes.”þþIn the House, lawmakers are set to vote on a proposal to relax an anti-trust exemption for the insurance industry and the renewal of intelligence programs.þþAnd on Thursday, Democrats and Republicans are to meet at the White House for the much ballyhooed health care summit.þþCongressional leaders also have to decide what they are going to do about a handful of major programs that are set to run out at the end of the month after being temporarily extended as the House raced for the holiday exits back in December.þþThey include some provisions of the anti-terrorism so-called Patriot Act, federal flood insurance, small business loans and a provision preventing a cut in doctor pay by Medicare. þ
Source: NY Times
