Record Of Special Events: Senate and House of Representatives Agree on Stimulus Bill Compromise

Monday, February 16, 2009

Senate and House of Representatives Agree on Stimulus Bill Compromise

In the past few minutes, the conference including the Senate and the House of Representatives was concluded. They’ve come to a compromise between the two versions of the economic stimulus bill to be sent to the President of the United States to be signed into law.

I’ll post more details when the Congress provides them.

Update: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is not agreeing with the House and Senate’s compromise. The hold-up apparently concerns $10 billion added to the bill for the purpose of helping school infrastructure.

Update 2: A few more, but not many, details have been announced. The $15,000 tax credit for homebuyers, in the Senate’s bill, has been “significantly reduced.” The tax credit for those who purchase a car in 2009 is reduced from the version approved by the Senate. The compromise bill will also fix the alternative minimum tax to not affect as many middle-income earners. Another tax break, the working tax break that employees would see as a reduction of withholding, has been decreased from $500 to $400 for single taxpayers and from $1,000 to $800 for couples.

The bill will be written overnight, and will probably be available for full perusal tomorrow morning.

Update 3: The $15,000 credit was more than “significantly reduced,” it was eliminated, leaving the Houses’s version—an extension of the credit for first-time homebuyers. The House Rules Committee will establish how the revised bill will be debated and the House and Senate will probably debate the bill by the end of the week.

Update 4: The compromise bill increases the credit for first-time homebuyers from $7,500 to $8,000, but only if the house is purchased by the end of August 2009. This $8,000 tax credit would not need to be repaid, unlike the current $7,500 credit. The House and the Senate will vote on the latest incarnation of the bill on Friday, and I expect it will pass.

Update 5: The House and the Senate have approved the compromise bill, and it has now been sent to the President to sign into law. Read the complete stimulus bill here, and you’ll be a step ahead of many of the congressmen who didn’t have a chance to read it before voting.

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