WASHINGTON, DC – Members of a key Congressional conference committee today reached agreement on a $150 billion plan to renew a payroll tax cut, continue jobless aid for the    long-term unemployed, and ensure seniors on Medicare can continue to have access to their doctors.

Unless Congress approves the measure, the middle-class tax cut and added unemployment insurance will expire and doctors’ Medicare payments will be reduced — all on March 1st.

A fact sheet on the overall agreement (conference committee report on H.R. 3630) is available here.  A summary of the unemployment insurance provisions is available here.

U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), a member of the bipartisan conference committee charged with working out an agreement on the legislation, today issued the following statement: 

“In the face of strenuous opposition we were able to extend a much needed tax cut and maintain federal support for families that are struggling with the biggest recession since the Great Depression.  We would have liked to have done more in terms of providing needed assistance to strengthen and sustain job growth.

“Failure was not an option and both sides came together to ensure 160 million Americans -- including 600,000 Rhode Islanders -- do not face a tax increase.

“The conference report puts an estimated $1,000 in additional money in the hands of the average Rhode Island family and continues critical jobless benefits to help the long-term unemployed and boost consumer demand.  The compromise also ensures approximately 181,000 Rhode Islanders on Medicare will continue to have access to health care services by preventing a 27 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors.

“Too many Congressional Republicans wanted to pull the rug out from under people who’ve been hit hardest by the recession.  We didn’t let that happen.  Reaching a good compromise on unemployment insurance was made tougher by the Obama Administration’s proposal to cut Rhode Island and several other states from 99 weeks down to 79.  And the House-passed version of the bill provided an immediate and drastic cut to 59 weeks.  While the final deal contains a gradual reduction in benefits across the country, I fought to ensure extra federal support for high-unemployment states.

“The package also includes my work sharing legislation, providing $500 million for business-state partnerships nationwide to help prevent layoffs. Rhode Island already has a successful work sharing initiative, which has saved over 10,000 jobs, and so for the next three years the state will be relieved of all work sharing payments provided it meets all requirements.  If these provisions would have been in place over the last three years, Rhode Island would have saved an estimated $36 million in state funding.  Those are resources that can now be targeted toward creating jobs and economic growth in Rhode Island.

“The conference report also includes other common sense measures to help the unemployed return to work quickly and encourage entrepreneurship.  It overrides the worst of the House Republican proposals to place barriers to assistance that would have disproportionately harmed middle-aged Americans looking for work.  And it provides over $7 million for Rhode Island to help an estimated 4,000 parents and children a month retain their RIte Care coverage as they transition to employment and increase their earnings.

“I am disappointed Republicans did not agree to cover the cost of this compromise by eliminating corporate subsidies and making our tax system fairer. 

“But overall, this legislation recognizes the need to continue the payroll tax cut and jobless aid.  We must continue to promote innovative job creation strategies to accelerate our economic recovery.  The next logical step is to pass a robust transportation bill that can quickly put more than one million Americans to work improving our transportation system and providing long-term economic benefits.”

Now that the conference committee has signed off on the agreement, it must be passed by both the House and the Senate before it can be sent to President Obama to be signed into law.