Jobs Bills

Today in Washington, D.C. - Oct 28, 2010
The U.S. Senate is not in session this week' it is Senate constituent work week. When they return will the Senate democrat leadership push the bipartisan House-Passed Jobs Bill or Stimulus Bill which has bipartisan opposition?

The House Judiciary committee approved a  bipartisan bill to eliminate nation quotas for green cards and to provide more highly skilled workers for high-tech industry.  The House bill would amend current law and eliminate the cap entirely for employment-based green cards, which could alleviate a backlog of qualified workers in China and India sought by U.S. companies. Current law provides that family-sponsored and employment-based green cards cannot exceed 75vof the total number of green cards made available each year.  Because of the caps on green cards and some countries having more skilled workers that America wants, eligible workers must wait longer for visas from some countries. Question: With high unenployment in the United States, don't we have enough "skilled" workers looking for jobs?

Bloomberg News writes today, “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will return to Washington next week under pressure to advance legislation repealing a requirement that governments withhold 3 percent of payments to contractors. The House of Representatives passed the repeal legislation yesterday, 405-16, and also passed a bill that would offset the repeal by changing provisions of the 2010 health-care law. President Barack Obama has said he would sign both measures. . . . Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said the chamber should vote on the repeal with the House offset next week. ‘The Senate should take this up next week, without any poison pills, and send it to the president for his signature,’ McConnell said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. ‘Let’s vote on it and prove the skeptics wrong by acting in a bipartisan fashion.’”

Yet despite strong bipartisan support for this bill—it was one of the few bipartisan proposals in President Obama’s new economic plan—Senate Democrat leaders filibustered a bill to implement this proposal offered by Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) that had several Democrat cosponsors last week. Politico noted, “Senate Republicans tried to push a similar repeal of the withholding rule last week but fell three votes short of overcoming a Democratic-led filibuster. The problem there was that Democrats opposed $30 billion in discretionary spending cuts that had been attached to the plan. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called that move by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) a ‘stunt,’ although Reid said he supports the repeal.”

Next week, majority Senate Democrats will have an opportunity to pass bipartisan legislation that can help job creators. But according to The Hill, “Senate Democrats will try to pass President Obama’s $60 billion infrastructure bill next week, despite the past opposition of a powerful Democratic chairwoman to a major component of the legislation. The bill includes $10 billion for a national infrastructure bank, even though Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) said last year she would ‘never’ support such a proposal. . . . Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) opposed a similar infrastructure-heavy stimulus proposal last year when he was in the midst of one of the nation’s toughest Senate races.”

This begs the question" will Senate Democrat leaders push another stimulus bill that has bipartisan opposition, or will they instead join with Senate Republicans and a large bipartisan majority of the House and pass a bill to ease the regulatory burden on contactors that has bipartisan support?

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