House Congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and John Boehner (R-OH), along with the White House last week reached a bipartisan agreement on the economic stimulus package, which the House is expected to consider on Tuesday.
The $150 billion package would provide tax rebate of up to $600 for individuals and up to $1200 for married couples, with an additional $300 per child. The amount of the rebate checks will be reduced and/or phased-out for higher-income workers; specifically, those individuals with adjusted gross incomes of more than $75,000 and married couples making more than $150,000. It is expected that the checks would be sent out between May and July.
To encourage corporate and small business spending, the package contains tax cuts for businesses. Companies would receive fifty percent bonus depreciation in 2008 for expenditures subject to depreciation over 20 years or less. Small businesses would also receive a boost in upfront deductions.
The economic stimulus package would
address housing matters by increasing the size of mortgage loans that
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may purchase (up to a maximum of $729,750),
and a permanent increase in the FHA loan limit (up to a maximum of
$729,750).
By agreement, the cost of the economic stimulus package will not be
offset as a requirement of the pay-go rules. The package is expected to
bypass the committee process and be sent to the House floor the week of
February 4.
Passage may not be as smooth in the Senate, however, with leaders
looking to add provisions to the package. Provisions being discussed for
possible inclusion are: increases in food stamp payments, Medicaid
payments to the states, extended unemployment benefits, funding for the
Highway Trust Fund, and more money for programs that find summer
employment for teenagers.
Energy provisions such as a one-year extension of the production tax
credit and investment tax credits for clean energy are also being
discussed.
The Senate Finance Committee will mark-up a version of the package next
week. The coming week may also bring more clarity as to whether Congress
intends to pursue two separate stimulus packages, with the second one
coming mid-year and focused more on infrastructure projects and
spending.
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has set a goal of February 15 to deliver the package to the President for signature.
PRESIDENT'S FY09 BUDGET TO BE RELEASED MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4
The President is expected to unveil his proposed federal budget for federal Fiscal Year 2009 on Monday, February 4. The various authorizing and appropriations committees in Congress will follow up with hearings organized by department.
Those hearings that have been announced are detailed in the right-hand column of this update, toward the bottom.
SENATE COMMITTEE HOLDS HEARING ON PROPOSED MINING LAW UPDATE
This week, the Senate Energy and Natural
Resources Committee held another hearing on proposals to update the 1872
Mining Law, however, it is expected that legislation crafted by Chairman
Bingaman and Senator Domenici will not be unveiled until spring.
Additionally, it is not known yet how Senators Bingaman and Domenici
will address the collection of royalties and whether to base them on net
or gross proceeds. Committee Chairman Bingaman intends to ask the
Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to analyze different kinds of royalty
structures.
The House passed its mining update bill, H.R. 2262, in early November.
That measure, sponsored by House Natural Resources Committee Chairman
Rahall, would amend the 1872 Mining Law by eliminating patents and
requiring the mining industry to pay an 8 percent royalty on new mines
based on gross proceeds. Existing mines would pay a 4 percent royalty.
Two-thirds of the royalties would be used to clean up abandoned mines
and the remaining amount would be used to assist mining communities. An
amendment to allocate 50 percent of the abandoned mine clean up funds to
the state from which the royalties were collected was adopted on the
House floor.
SENATE COMMITTEES HOLD CLIMATE CHANGE HEARINGS
This past week, several committees held
hearings on climate change and related topics.
Among them was the hearing before the Senate Environment and Public
Works Committee regarding the EPA’s decision to block states from
setting greenhouse gas emissions standards for vehicles. Last year, the
EPA denied California a waiver that would have permitted the state to go
forward with its own greenhouse gas regulations. The decision affects
fourteen other states that also want to move forward with similar
regulations but cannot until California receives its waiver. At
Thursday’s hearing, Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) introduced
legislation that would reverse the EPA ruling.
Separately, Senator George Voinovich (R-OH) announced that he and a
group of bipartisan senators are working on an alternative bill to the
Lieberman-Warner cap and trade measure. Senator Voinovich said that
their bill is meant to address climate change without harming the U.S.
economy and would achieve that primarily by speeding up the technologies
needed to make pulverized coal plants more efficient.
SCHIP VETO
UPHELD BY HOUSE
Last Wednesday, the House voted 260–152 to sustain President Bush's
veto of H.R. 3963, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
This was the second attempt in recent months to override the Bush
Administration’s veto of an SCHIP reauthorization measure. The bill
would have increased funding for the SCHIP program by $35 billion
over five years, paid for by a 61-cent increase in the federal
tobacco tax.
Last December, the President Bush signed into law the Medicare,
Medicaid and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007 (P.L. 110-173), which funds
the SCHIP program at current funding levels through March 2009. The
extension was designed to avert any federal funding shortfalls
during this period, but it does not make any significant policy
changes to the program.
