Senate OKs Jobless Benefits After Lone Holdout Relents
The Associated Press
USA Today
March 3, 2010
Putting a lone senator's cantankerous challenge behind it, the Senate is back to work on a $100 billion-plus bill reviving popular tax breaks and extending longer and more generous jobless benefits through the end of the year.
Kentucky Republican Jim Bunning relented on Tuesday evening, freeing the Senate to approve stopgap legislation extending for another month a host of programs, including highway funding, health insurance subsidies for the unemployed and benefits for the long-term jobless. That gives Congress time to consider the far larger measure covering most of the same programs.
But the daunting price tag on the longer-term measure guarantees more complications and an even rougher path through the Senate than experienced by the bill passed Tuesday.
Democrats to Unveil Jobs Package; Spending Fight Looms
By Naftali Bendavid & Greg Hitt
The Wall Street Journal
February 3, 2010
Senate Democrats are preparing to release a roughly $80 billion jobs program this week, but its prospects are uncertain in a political landscape where voters are angry about unemployment yet fuming about federal spending.
Senate leaders are proposing that part of that money come from funds originally allocated to the financial-sector bailout effort, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. But top Democrats have decided to slice the jobs initiative into smaller chunks in the face of Republican attacks on big federal economic-stimulus programs.
Action on the jobs measures will be a warm-up for the larger debates over federal spending proposed in President Barack Obama's 2011 budget plan released Monday. Both sides agree that jobs are a national priority. With Republicans on the cusp of 41 votes in the Senate, Democrats need some GOP support to avoid procedural obstacles that could doom their effort. If Republicans do block their initiatives—particularly proposed tax breaks for businesses—Democrats are prepared to blame the minority party for seeking election-year political advantage at the expense of hard-pressed workers.
New Transit-Funding Rules Make Streetcars More Desirable
By Melanie Trottman & Josh Mitchell
The Wall Street Journal
January 15, 2010
The Obama administration said it was revamping rules on federal transit funding to funnel more of the money to streetcars, bus routes and other projects that promote "livability."
The new policy announced Wednesday, part of a broader effort by the Obama administration to use transportation and housing programs to reduce driving, contain sprawl and create transit-related jobs, could lift the fortunes of makers of light-rail and other transit equipment sold to states and cities.
Among more than 80 cities that could now qualify for funding are Seattle; Cincinnati; Boise, Idaho; and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D., Ore.), who led the push for a federal program designed to promote transit projects. Transit-industry officials said many projects had been stymied by a Bush administration policy requiring the government to evaluate projects based largely on reducing commuting times at the lowest possible expense.
HNTB Corp., an infrastructure firm that serves federal, state, and other clients, is working on a commuter-rail project in Indianapolis that could benefit from the change, said Liz Rao, the firm's national public-transit services chairwoman.
Obama Searches for Details, Ideas on How to Create Jobs
By Sam Youngman
The Hill
December 3, 2009
President Barack Obama challenged participants in his White House jobs summit to bring their "A-game" Thursday, telling them he wants to hear detailed plans for how he and businesses can create jobs.
Obama told the group, consisting of businesses owners, labor leaders and academics, that even though he and his administration are "creating the conditions for economic growth, ultimately, true economic recovery is only going to come from the private sector."
With the national unemployment rate at 10.2 percent and White House officials expecting a "slight uptick" in that number when revised estimates for November are released on Friday, Obama challenged the crowd to be "surgical and creative" and offer detailed proposals.
It's relatively small by Washington standards, but the Obama administration's $4.35 billion carrot for schools is already leading states to adopt a handful of key reforms.
Tucked into the $110 billion federal stimulus slated for education, a comparatively tiny grant known as the Race to the Top requires that states that want the money must commit to closing historic achievement gaps and getting more kids into college – but they also must show that they're attending to a few nitty-gritty details that President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan believe are important.
On Wednesday, Obama plans to mark the first anniversary of his 2008 election with a speech at a middle school in Madison, Wis., where he'll talk about the Race to the Top. The first batch of money isn't scheduled to go out until January, but state legislatures over the past few months have been scrambling to rewrite laws governing these systems.
