–Senate Majority Leader Reid: Senate Vote In Next 24-36 Hours
–Talks Continue On Payroll Tax Cut Plan
–Sen. Durbin: ‘Moving Forward’ On FY’12 Spending Bill
–House To Vote On FY’12 Omnibus Early Friday Afternoon
By John Shaw
WASHINGTON (MNI) – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid confirmed
Friday that an agreement has been reached on a massive $900 billion
omnibus spending bill for the 2012 fiscal year and added that work
continues on a package to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment
insurance benefits.
In brief remarks on the Senate floor, Reid said the Senate will
take up the omnibus spending bill soon and predicted a vote within the
“next 24 or 36 hours.”
The current stop-gap bill funding the government expires Friday at
midnight. House and Senate appropriations leaders have been working for
weeks on an FY’12 omnibus that will include the nine of the spending
bills that have not yet been approved.
The House has already begun considering Friday the rules by which
the House debates and votes on the FY’12 omnibus spending bill.
The House vote on the FY’12 omnibus is expected to occur Friday
afternoon.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin said lawmakers are “moving
forward” on the spending bill but are still working on “the final
details” of the payroll tax cut extension package.
Some Democrats have said that if no agreement is reached in the
coming hours on a payroll tax cut extension, it might makes sense to
pass a two month extension of the tax cut.
Reid has called this “Plan B.”
The parties appear to agree on extending the payroll tax cut for
another year, extending unemployment insurance in some form and
preventing Medicare payments to doctors from being cut by 27%.
The talks are still seeking to nail down the detail of this package
and agree on about $200 billion in offsets to pay for the payroll tax
cut extension bill.
** Market News International Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **
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