Senate Passes Tweaked Payroll Tax Bill

ABC NewsUPDATE: The House of Representatives agreed by unanimous consent to pass a temporary two-month extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance, delaying a contentious battle over a long-term solution until early next year.

(WASHINGTON) — The Senate has done its part procedurally on the payroll tax bill, so the next step is handed over to the House of Representatives. In session Friday for 1 minute, 28 seconds the Senate passed by Unanimous Consent the updated, slightly tweaked version of the two-month payroll tax cut extension.

This action is contingent on the House of Representatives passing the same bill before Jan. 1.

The Senate needed to pass this through again because of some minor tweaks from the House.

At the end of the less-than-two-minute session, the presiding officer, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, ended with a “happy holidays,” to all. The Senate will be on recess until the New Year.

Haling this as a “new day,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, celebrated the Senate’s passage of the two-month payroll tax deal and appointed, as the compromise called for, his designees for the conference committee.

Reid has chosen Sen. Max Baucus, D-Montana, Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Maryland, Sen. Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island, and Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pennsylvania to the conference committee to negotiate a year-long payroll tax deal. The group will get to work right away.

“They’re going to work expeditiously to come up with a long-term arrangement on the payroll tax, on unemployment, of course, and on the doc fix,” Reid said. “I have instructed my staff to get me together with them sometime next week.  And what — we’ll get — we, Senate Democrats, will get together.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, will be announcing his three picks for the committee soon, his office says.

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