House Passes Amended Jobs Bill; Senate to Act this Week
On Thursday, March 4, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 2847, the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) $15 billion jobs bill. (Roll Call Vote #90, March 4, 2010). While the House tweaked the bill by extending a corporate tax break for an additional year (Politico, March 4, 2010), it failed to address the primary issue that FAIR has raised concerning the HIRE Act: the legislation completely omits any mandate that jobs created by the bill go to U.S. workers. (See FAIR’s Legislative Updates: March 1, 2010; February 22, 2010).
The HIRE Act, which passed the Senate on February 24, contains two major tax provisions: (1) an exemption from payroll taxes for employers who hire new employees in 2010 and (2) a $1,000 tax credit for employers who keep those employees for at least 52 weeks. (Id.). Unfortunately, the bill does not require that these new workers be legal or that employers use E-Verify to confirm their work authorization. (See FAIR’s Legislative Update, February 16, 2010). FAIR has urged Congress to address these issues by amending the bill to (1) require employers seeking to receive benefits under the bill to use E-Verify and (2) bar employers who do not hire legal U.S. workers from receiving tax benefits. While both the House and the Senate failed to address these issues before passing the jobs bill, it is important to note that, since the House amended the bill, the Senate must pass the legislation a second time before it can be sent to the White House for the president’s signature. Accordingly, senators will have at least one more opportunity to correct the problems in the bill.
Stay tuned to FAIR for the latest developments concerning the HIRE Act…
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