The Wall Street Journal-20080130-Hard Dealing to Begin on Economic-Stimulus Bill- House Passage Reflects Broad Bipartisanship- Senate Has Some Tweaks
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Hard Dealing to Begin on Economic-Stimulus Bill; House Passage Reflects Broad Bipartisanship; Senate Has Some Tweaks
Full Text (622 words)WASHINGTON -- The House approved an economic-stimulus bill with rebates for millions of people and incentives for business investment, sending the bill to the Senate for what could be a tense reckoning over competing versions of the package.
The House, in a rare show of bipartisan sentiment, voted 385 to 35 in favor of the $146 billion bill, which will provide tax credits and rebates to 117 million people as soon as this spring if legislation is completed quickly.
In the Senate, too, there is overwhelming support for a stimulus bill, and the top Democrat, Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, has set a goal of sending legislation to President Bush by Feb. 15. But how a bill will emerge from the Senate -- and how different it might be from the House version -- is uncertain.
The Senate's tax panel today is scheduled to consider a $161 billion plan that, while similar to the House bill, would provide rebates to a broader group of people, extend unemployment insurance benefits nationwide and give businesses with operating losses greater ability to win tax refunds from past years.
The current plan is to try to add those changes as an amendment to the House bill, leaving intact the House's increases in loan limits for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration.
Several issues remain unresolved in the Senate. Some Democrats, and a few Republicans, criticized the Senate Finance proposal for lacking an income cap to prevent wealthy people from receiving rebates. The House bill does include a cap.
Many senators from both parties have proposed adding items such as increased spending on food stamps or energy and housing initiatives. To complete a bill, significant bipartisan support will be needed. The depth of Republican support for unemployment insurance extensions and other issues will face its first test in the committee vote today.
Republicans stepped up their calls for the Senate to quickly pass the House stimulus bill unchanged. "This is not the time to get into some kind of testing of wills between congressional bodies," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said. He said a "significant majority" of Senate Republicans support the House deal.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), who negotiated the House bill with Republicans and the Bush administration, cautioned against moves that might unravel the deal. "I don't want anything that's done in the Senate, as much as I would support many of those initiatives, to do any harm to what we have done in our rebate package," she said. She suggested that a boost in unemployment insurance benefits, a top priority for many Democrats that wasn't included in the House bill, could be brought up in separate legislation.
The House bill, estimated to cost $146 billion this year, would devote about $100 billion to rebates for 117 million people and the rest to tax breaks encouraging business investment in new equipment and plants. Rebates of at least $300 would be available to people who earned at least $3,000 last year, plus $300 bonuses for children. People who owe income taxes would receive more, up to $600 for individuals and $1,200 for couples. The rebates would phase down at higher incomes, $75,000 for individuals and $150,000 for families.
The Senate proposal would broaden the rebates by providing them to people whose only income is Social Security checks, as well as a wealthier group excluded by the income limits in the House bill.
The White House officially endorsed the House bill, saying in a statement that it meets President Bush's criteria: that it is large enough and designed to have immediate impact on the economy, and that it is broad-based, temporary and "based on tax relief rather than government spending programs."
