The Senate zoomed back to work today, dispatching with the cloture vote on the small business bill that Republicans had been dragging out for weeks prior to August recess in a morning's work. That's what happens when Republicans, in this case two of them--Voinovich and LeMieux of Florida, decide to actually legislate and breaks the logjam. Cloture passed 61-37, with the vote on final passage probably Thursday morning.
The Johanns amendment was defeated 52-46, despite some unfortunate Dem votes: Bayh, Ben Nelson, Webb, Lincoln, and Bennet. The Bill Nelson amendment, which would have kept reporting requirements but raised the threshold for who had to report and at what amount also failed, 56-42, with Begich and Lincoln voting no. Probably because Nelson offset it with increased taxes on oil companies.
With the small business reporting requirements in the Affordable Care Act now unresolved, this will continue to be a point of contention in Republican's efforts to repeal the health bill (which is of course why no Republicans voted for it even though it would have eased the problem for small businesses.)
The bill creates a $30 billion fund to help spur lending to small businesses that continue to have problems accessing credit.
The fund would be available to community banks with less than $10 billion in assets to help them increase lending to small businesses. The bill would combine the fund with about $12 billion in tax breaks aimed at both large and small businesses.
Democrats say banks should be able to use the lending fund to leverage up to $300 billion in loans, helping to loosen tight credit markets....
The small business tax cuts in the bill include breaks for restaurant owners and retailers who remodel their stores or build new ones. Larger businesses could more quickly recover the costs of capital improvements through depreciation. Long-term investors in some small businesses would be exempt from paying capital gains taxes. And loan caps under the Small Business Administration's chief lending program would be significantly raised.
Democrats had hoped to pass the bill in July, but Democrats couldn't win any GOP converts and fell just short of defeating a GOP filibuster.
Much of the bill would be paid for by allowing taxpayers to convert 401(k) and government retirement accounts into Roth accounts, in which they pay taxes up front on the money they contribute, enabling them to withdraw it tax-free after they retire. Taxpayers who convert accounts this year would pay the taxes in 2011 and 2012, generating an estimated $5.1 billion.
The House passed a version of the bill back in June. The conference on this one will like move quickly and smoothly so that Congress can chalk up at least one jobs related bill quickly. The White House e-mailed this statement from President Obama:
“Today’s vote brings us one step closer to ending the months-long partisan blockade of a small business jobs bill that was written by both Democrats and Republicans. This is a bill that would cut taxes and help provide loans to millions of small business owners who create most of the new jobs in this country. It is fully paid for, it won’t add to the deficit, and small businesses across the country have been waiting for Washington to act on this bill for far too long. I am grateful to Senators Reid, Baucus and Landrieu for their leadership on this issue as well as the two Republican Senators who put partisanship aside and joined Democrats in overcoming this filibuster. I urge all members of the Senate to support final passage as soon as possible."