House to weigh jobs bill

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The House may give final congressional approval as early as next week to the Senate-passed jobs bill, clearing the way for President Obama to sign it into law, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday.

Despite grumbling by some fellow Democrats, Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said she was hopeful that an agreement could be reached soon to proceed on the measure and that she expected it to be the first of a number of such bills aimed at helping reduce the nation’s double-digit unemployment rate.

“I believe we will have this [jobs] bill up next week,” Pelosi said at her weekly news conference.

A number of House Democrats have complained that the $15-billion Senate bill is inadequate. They favor the much broader $155-billion version that the House passed in December.

Tensions have been growing between Democrats in the House, who can pass legislation with relative ease, and those in the Senate, where Republicans have much greater power to shape and obstruct legislation.

The Senate bill relies on business tax breaks and highway spending to create jobs. The House package centers on highway spending, state aid and enhanced federal safety-net benefits.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus told House Democratic leaders Thursday that they didn’t support the Senate measure because they saw it more as a tax-cut bill than one that would create jobs, according to The Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress.

“I will not stand up in the district that I represent ... and say we just did a jobs bill,” The Hill quoted Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), CBC vice chairman, as saying. “I think people are smarter than that. This is a tax-cut bill.”

-- Reuters