WASHINGTON – Two top lawmakers say the House of Representatives and Senate have sealed a final agreement on legislation to renew a 2 percentage-point cut in the payroll tax and jobless benefits for millions of unemployed workers, a top priority of President Barack Obama.
Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, the Senate Finance Committee Chairman, and Republican Rep. Dave Camp, the House Ways and Means Committee Chairman, confirmed the agreement to Fox News late Wednesday, capping a long day of wrangling over the final details of the measure.
"We're here together to announce that we do have an agreement and we are moving forward," Camp said outside a meeting space.
"This is very important for a lot of people," Baucus added. "160 million Americans are now going to maintain their payroll tax cut. A lot of folks who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own are going to receive unemployment benefits."
However, Camp says the bill isn't done yet, as lawmakers are still hashing out the "legislative language" of the bill behind closed doors.
"We're drafting, and with all drafting there are obviously technical issues that come up," he said. "There are still a few things we need to work out. They're minor and (we) expect that to be finally totally resolved tomorrow."
It's unclear when the bill will be posted or when the House might move the bill, but a senior source says that the text of the bill will not be posted online overnight.
Technically, this means lawmakers can't vote on the bill Friday, as was thought to be the goal. However, the plan may be to still do so.
Both Camp and Baucus told Fox News they don't know when the bill brought to a vote before their respective bodies.
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