|
| US House Approves $154 Bn Jobs Bill |
| Bloomberg / Dec 18, 2009, 00:55 IST |
|
Passes a $636 billion defence budget bill and $290 billion increase in the legal limit on government borrowing
The US House approved a $154 billion economic-aid package and a $290 billion increase in the legal limit on government borrowing as the chamber wrapped up its legislative business for the year.
The lawmakers voted 218-214 on Wednesday to raise the debt ceiling to $12.394 trillion, the fourth such increase in 18 months. Hours later, the House approved on a 217-212 vote the new spending for infrastructure projects, extended unemployment benefits and aid to state governments.
The chamber also passed a $636 billion defense budget bill on Wednesday. All three measures await Senate action.
While the debt and defence measures are likely to reach President Barack Obama’s desk by Christmas, the jobs plan faces opposition in the Senate, where lawmakers are wary of its effect on the government’s $1.4 trillion budget deficit.
House Democrats said the jobs measure would aid struggling families.
“We’re trying to bail out our people,” said Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel. “We’re trying to restore the hope and confidence they had, we’re trying to keep kids in school, we’re trying to put food on their table.”
Republicans scoffed at the plan. “This is nothing short of a taxpayer-funded Christmas shopping spree financed with money borrowed from the Chinese,” said Representative Jerry Lewis of California, the top Republican on the Appropriations Committee.
Obama praised the House action. In a statement last night, he said, “All over the country this holiday season, Americans who lost their jobs in the Great Recession are looking for work. Today the House answered with some productive ideas to respond to this great need.”
Close to 40 Democrats voted against the jobs bill, most of them “Blue Dogs”, a group of fiscally conservative lawmakers. One of them, Representative Michael Arcuri of New York, said he opposed the plan because it would add to the deficit. He also said he doubted the Senate “is going to do anything” with the House bill.
No Republicans supported the jobs bill.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, lobbied colleagues on the bill’s behalf even after the vote began as she struggled to win its passage. Afterward, Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, the Democrats’ chief vote-counter, said he hadn’t been sure the bill would pass.
Pelosi said at a news conference following the vote, “We had to take up the debt limit today, and having this bill following that was a heavy lift.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Read Business news in |  |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Advertisements |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Content Guide
