WASHINGTON — A bill to encourage hiring and help the unemployed is gaining support among Republicans and Democrats after sponsors added an extension of the anti-terrorism Patriot Act and a break for doctors receiving Medicare payments.
The bill brought forth Thursday would extend unemployment payments for those whose benefits have run out as well as subsidies to help the jobless pay for health insurance.
It also includes a tax break for companies that hire unemployed workers, money for highway construction, relief for private pensions and a one-year extension of the Patriot Act, which liberal lawmakers have opposed as failing to protect Americans from unwarranted government surveillance and seizures of property.
While the centerpiece of the measure is a $13 billion payroll-tax credit for companies that hire unemployed workers, the bulk of it addresses leftover business the Senate couldn’t get to last year when it was preoccupied with the health care debate.
Doctors would get a seven-month reprieve from a 21 percent cut in Medicare fees required under a 1990s budget law. A law governing the satellite- television industry would be updated, and farmers would get $1.5 billion for agriculture disaster assistance.
About $31 billion in popular tax breaks that expired at the end of 2009, including an income-tax deduction for sales and property taxes and a business-tax credit for research and development, would be extended through 2010.
In all, the bill would cost about $104 billion and would be partially offset by $38 billion in tax increases and $8 billion in spending cuts.
The Obama administration has been pushing hard for a stronger congressional response to the country’s chronically high unemployment rate, which stands at 9.7 percent of the labor force. President Barack Obama has served notice on Republican opponents that he’s willing to accept some of their positions and priorities as long as doing so doesn’t mean he has to give up his.
The White House praised the bill, which includes many of Obama’s job proposals.
“The president is gratified to see the Senate moving forward in a bipartisan manner on steps to help put Americans back to work,” said a statement from press secretary Robert Gibbs.
