UPDATED, 6:51 p.m. -- Senators on both sides of the aisle cast doubt on prospects for completing action on job-creation measures this week, citing the weather and lingering disagreements on the scope of the package.
"It's kind of hard to touch all the bases ... a lot of senators are gone; they're just not going to make it, I don't think, this week," said Finance Chairman Max Baucus, one of the lead negotiators on the measure, expected to total roughly $85 billion.
"The feeling is very good. [Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell, myself, [Finance ranking member Chuck] Grassley, we all talked together ... and we are proceeding in good faith. Senators want to work together. Some members haven't seen all the details yet, but we're moving as quickly as we can."
Indeed, one of the biggest complaints on the Republican side was that they have yet to see the bill, which has not been publicly unveiled, to examine its contents.
"I talked to somebody just now on the floor and said he got it ... through a Democrat lobbyist," Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, said. "If you want to talk about bipartisanship ... that's not very good."
Voinovich said he does not believe debate on the bill will finish this week. "I think that one of the things that we should realize around here -- and we did it when we were here -- is all this backing this stuff up until the recess to get everybody to move quickly on something without giving them the time to really look at it is wrong," he said. "I don't think that's intellectually honest."
"People have to know what's in it ... and whether or not it's going to work to help the economy," added Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine. She mentioned that one issue she has with the package is that higher small business expensing limits are only extended until the end of the current year.
"That is not enough certainty. We have to give some breathing room to small businesses ... they have to have several years. That is the way they make their decisions," Snowe said.
There was also some concern with a move by Democratic leaders to attach provisions unrelated to creating jobs, such as extensions of USA PATRIOT Act provisions and disaster aid for farmers and ranchers, even though such provisions by themselves had bipartisan support.
"I used to take a dim view of that when I was governor in trying to load things up like a Christmas tree because I usually didn't go along with that," said Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., who himself was heavily criticized in December for seeking a home-state exemption from higher Medicaid costs in the healthcare bill.
Others want to add more spending. Senate Commerce Chairman Jay Rockefeller, for example, and others want to add a six-month extension of higher federal matching payments to states for Medicaid reimbursements.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said he likes what he has heard so far but that it could be improved. "I'm not convinced yet," he said. "I think we need to do more." That includes taxing bonuses and putting that money directly toward small business loans. "We need to be not talking about sort of the same old, same old," he said.
Senate Minority Whip Kyl said there is no chance the Senate will vote on the bill before the recess. "It's just not quite ready yet. There's been some tentative agreement on many of the components of it. But not enough of the members have had an opportunity to review all of it for there to be a consensus that would permit us to move forward quickly," he said.
On prospects for passage after the recess, Kyl said, "if there is a bipartisan agreement, it should not be a difficult thing to do."
Kyl said one of the hang-ups remained how to handle the estate tax, which lapsed last year but could jump to 55 percent next year if no action is taken. Neither side wants that outcome, but the GOP is seeking assurances that legislation will be taken up soon.
Kyl said he is looking for "a time by which it will be considered and a process for its consideration" to reach an agreement. He said he wants to address the estate tax as soon as possible although details remain to be worked out.
Another area of contention remained the length of a delay in Medicare physician payment cuts set to take effect March 1. A draft of the jobs bill would postpone the 21 percent reduction until Oct. 1; Republicans are pushing for a delay through at least 2010 if not longer.
Democrats had initially sought a shorter delay to match three-month extensions in the bill of unemployment insurance benefits and COBRA health subsidies for laid-off workers; a shorter delay means that lawmakers will have to come back and deal with the matter again before the elections, which could be a vehicle for healthcare reforms.
As expected, according to the draft core of the new bill -- called the "Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act," or the HIRE bill -- is a payroll tax break crafted by Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.
Employers would get a break on Social Security taxes for employees hired in 2010 that had been out of work for at least two months. Firms would get an additional $1,000 tax credit for retaining those workers for at least a year and increasing their wages.
The draft would renew for a year higher small business expensing limits of $250,000, and extend and expand the Build America Bonds program of tax-credit bonds for state and local infrastructure projects. The federal government would pick up as much as 65 percent of the tab for small-issuer bonds, and the availability would be expanded to school construction, clean energy and conservation projects and others.
Federal surface transportation programs would be extended for a year, and a cash cushion for state highway authorities is included.
Numerous expired tax breaks would also be renewed for a year, such as the research and development credit and state and local sales tax deduction, and companies would get another year to convert unusable low-income housing tax credits into grants.
Offsets include revoking a renewable energy tax credit for paper companies' "black liquor" they use for fuel; tightening rules on foreign bank transactions; codifying the "economic substance doctrine" requiring companies to prove a transaction was entered into other than for tax avoidance, and trimming $4 billion from the Medicare Improvement Fund -- although that last provision, as with Medicare physician payments, was also bracketed for potential changes.
Relief is also on the way for cash-strapped companies facing huge defined-benefit pension plan contributions. Firms would be able to delay and spread out payments, which raises revenue to help pay for the bill because pension-plan contributions are tax-deductible.
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