subject: House Called Back To Vote On Education, Jobs [print this page] On the eve of the August recess (or work period as some on the Hill prefer to call it) the Senate, on Thursday, passed the Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had called the House back into session from its recess (the House cut out of town a week earlier - a full week before the Senate) and scheduled a vote on the Senate-passed bill on Tuesday, August 10.
While the Education Jobs and Medicaid Assistance Act does precisely what the title states; namely to A) provide $10B to states to support school districts and prevent layoffs that are feared immanent and B) increase federal funds to the Medicaid program, it also includes a few tax offsets of which only the repeal of advanced Earned Income Tax Credit is of even mild interest to most Enrolled Agents (not that takeup rate on advanced EITC is significant). Additionally, the bill claims to save 319,000 jobs of which 161,000 are teachers. It is also said to close loopholes that encourage corporations to ship American jobs overseas.
Although the House's return is unanticipated, it does not change the stubborn fact that many tax provisions were not addressed and therefore will not be addressed until September at the earliest. Most EAs are well aware of what still needs to happen on Capitol Hill with respect to federal taxation, but E@lert, the newsletter of the National Association of Enrolled Agents, gets in a lather about the issue and is compelled to lay out what has been left undone. There was no conclusion on the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts that expire at the end of this year, no action on additional tax extenders that will expire and no movement on the alternative minimum tax (AMT) patch.
The extenders bill (HR 4213) has been carved up and only the unemployment extension (up to 99 weeks) passed both chambers. The S-Corp provision focused on personal service businesses has not moved and its future is still uncertain, particularly given opposition from Maine Senator Olympia Snowe (R).
The threatened (and nearly assured) lame duck session seems likely to contain a number of the tax issues, but recent rumblings inside the beltway indicate that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) plans to have a showdown over the expiring 2001 and 2003 tax cuts in late September. This article provides some of the nuance, but healthy skepticism is prudent when it comes to promises for floor action.
