Senate Finance Committee releases discussion draft of next stimulus

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Although most of official Washington remains buried under the recent snow, the Senate Finance Committee today released a discussion draft and summary of the latest stimulus bill (dubbed a “jobs” bill by some).

The discussion draft of the legislation can be found here.

The Finance Committee has also provided a bipartisan summary of the legislation which can be found here.

Key highlights of the draft bill include:

• A new payroll tax exemption for every worker hired in 2010 that has been unemployed for at least 60 days. The bill also includes an additional $1,000 tax credit for employers for each employee hired in 2010 and retained for at least 52 weeks. Cost: $13 billion
• Transfer to the highway trust fund $19.5 billion from the general treasury to extend highway and transit programs through 2010. The Committee claims this will be revenue neutral.
• Extension of several expiring tax provisions including the R&D tax credit, the new markets tax credit, and several energy tax credits, among others. Cost: $31 billion
• Funding relief for select pension funds that have suffered losses in asset value. Cost: $6 billion
• Another extension of unemployment insurance increasing unemployment benefits through May 31, 2010. This means that some workers in high unemployment states can now receive up to 99 weeks of unemployment benefits. Cost: $22 billion
• Extension of COBRA payment assistance through May 31, 2010. Cost: $3 billion
• Extension of expiring health care provisions, including a 7 month patch for Medicare physicians payments, otherwise known as the “doc fix”. Cost: $10 billion
• Extension of section 179 small business expensing. Cost: $35 million
• A new election to convert tax credit bonds to Build America bonds. Cost: $2 billion