In a close vote of 217-212, the House passed a $154 billion jobs bill (HR 2847) on December 16, 2009. The Senate, however, is not expected to consider the bill this year, and may craft its own version after reconvening in 2010. The following is a summary provided by the California Institute for Federal Policy Research.
The Jobs for Main Street Act redirects $75 billion from recovered TARP funds to transportation and education programs, and extends several other programs aimed at creating jobs and helping those hit hardest by the recession. The bill’s provisions are:
Highways, Transit and Other Infrastructure ($48 Billion)
- Highways & Transit –$35 billion is provided for highways and mass transit.
- School Renovation – provides $4.1 billion to allow State, local, or tribal governments to receive a federal grant equal to the cost of tax credits that would otherwise be payable on bonds issued to finance school construction, rehabilitation or repair.
- Clean Water – Provides $2 billion to build facilities for clean and safe water, including $1 billion for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund and $1 billion for the Safe Drinking Water State Revolving Fund. Half of the funds will include additional subsidies, such as principal forgiveness and grants, to make it easier for more communities to access the programs.
- Bureau of Reclamation – $100 million to provide clean, reliable drinking water to rural areas and to ensure adequate water supply to areas impacted by drought.
- Housing – provides $2 billion to build, preserve, and rehabilitate affordable rental homes for very low-income households and for repairs and rehabilitation of public housing.
Hiring of Teachers, Police, Firefighters & Job Training ($27 Billion)
- Education – Includes $23 billion for an Education Jobs Fund focused on paying salaries. It is estimated that this will save or create an estimated 250,000 education jobs over the next two years. Funds can also be used to modernize, renovate, and repair public education facilities.
- Police & Firefighters – Provides $1.8 billion to put over 5,000 law enforcement officers on the beat and invest in hiring and retaining firefighters, and $500 million to retain, rehire, and hire firefighters.
- Training – Provides about $2 billion for other hiring and training programs, to support 25,000 more Americorps volunteers and 250,000 youth summer jobs; to expand college work study jobs for 250,000 students; and to support job training for 150,000 people in high growth industries, such as health care and clean energy jobs, at community colleges.
Small Business
The package extends several Recovery Act initiatives aimed at helping America’s small businesses create jobs:
- eliminates fees on Small Business Administration (SBA) loans to make them more affordable for small businesses, and
- encourages banks to lend to small businesses by raising to 90 percent (from 85 percent) the portion of a loan that the Small Business Administration will guarantee.
Emergency Relief to Families Hit by the Recession ($79 billion)
- Unemployment Benefits — Extends emergency unemployment benefits through June of 2010. The program expires at the end of the year and without an extension, roughly one million Americans will lose their emergency benefits in January 2010.
- Help with Health Insurance for Unemployed Workers (COBRA) — Extends through June 30, 2010 the 65 percent subsidy to help the unemployed continue COBRA health coverage. (It makes these benefits available for people who were involuntarily separated from their jobs through June 30, 2010 and extends the months of help from 9 months to 15 months.)
- Medicaid (FMAP) — Extends the provisions in the Recovery Act that provide the states with additional federal matching funds for Medicaid for six months – from December 31, 2010 to June 30, 2011.
- Child Tax Credit – Makes the Child Tax Credit available to all low-income working families with children in 2010. (Under the Recovery Act, families must earn at least $3,000 in order to begin to take advantage of the $1,000 Child Tax Credit.).
Other Provisions
Energy Innovation Loans – provides $2 billion for the Department of Energy Innovative Technology Loan Guarantee Program, to promote the rapid deployment of renewable energy and electric transmission projects.
Surface Transportation Authorization Extension – Extends the authorization for the highway, transit, highway safety and motor carrier safety programs of the Department of Transportation until September 30, 2010. In addition, the bill includes language that provides 100% federal share for the transportation programs authorized in the bill, repeals the provision that prohibits Highway Trust Fund balances from earning interest, and restores $20 billion to the Highway Trust Fund.
Neither this bill nor the DoD appropriations bill (see story above) contain a provision to prevent the estate tax from expiring for a one year period beginning January 1, 2010. The House has passed a bill, HR 4154, that would prevent the expiration and set the estate tax exemption at $3.5 million and the top tax rate on larger estates at 45 percent. But the Senate has not taken action and attempts in the past few days to negotiate a deal have failed.
For more information, go to: http://appropriations.house.gov .