U.S. Congress to Focus on Job Legislation

Released February 15, 2010

With a renewed emphasis on job creation by both the Congress and Obama administration, Senate lawmakers are planning to bring a series of jobs bill to the floor by early March. Some of the provisions that are currently being discussed and of interest to the metalcasting industry include:

• payroll tax break for employers hiring new workers;
• renewal of several expiring tax credits, including the research and development;
  
• extension of section 179 expensing thresholds so that taxpayers can write‐off up to $250,000 of certain capital expenditures (subject to a phase‐out once expenditures exceed $800,000) in 2010 in lieu of depreciating those costs over time;
  
• extension of several energy tax provisions, including credits for alternative fuel vehicles, as well as for biodiesel, renewable diesel and other alternative fuels;
  
• one-year extension of the law governing the Highway Trust Fund;
  
• three-month extension of unemployment insurance and COBRA health benefits;
  
• $6 billion worth of timely, targeted relief for private pension funds that suffered heavy losses in recent years.

The centerpiece of the jobs bill has been a provision giving companies an exemption from paying Social Security taxes for the remainder of 2010 on every worker they hire who has been unemployed for at least 60 days. The proposal is popular among many lawmakers but has also sparked controversy, as some experts have questioned whether it will really create many jobs for its estimated cost of $13 billion over 10 years. Discussions are still underway on how which provisions should be included and how to offset their cost.

For more information, contact Stephanie Salmon, Metalcasters Alliance for Government Affairs Washington Office, at ss@wafed.com or 202/842-4864.