Americas

Home page

Americas

House Passes $15 Billion Jobs Bill

04 March 2010 23:48 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. The House Thursday approved a $15 billion bill aimed at stimulating private-sector job creation, a day before what is expected to be another tough employment picture when official figures are released Friday, APA reports citing The Wall Street Journal.

The House vote was 217-201, with few Republicans joining the Democratic majority in supporting the bill.

While the legislation originated in the Senate, the House changed the bill, and so it must return to the Senate for lawmakers’ final approval.

The Senate won’t act to do so until next week because it is grappling with a large bill renewing tax cuts and providing emergency assistance for jobless Americans.

The House moved to fully offset the cost of the bill by finding savings elsewhere in the federal budget.

The legislation also would continue federal subsidies toward states’ costs for road and bridge construction projects, a measure that Democrats said has proved to protect jobs.

It would modestly expand bonds that help states and local governments raise funds for public-works projects and would allow small businesses to write off more of their expenses in 2010.

The legislation is the first of at least four bills Democrats hope to pass in the coming weeks aimed at spurring growth in the flagging jobs market.

Friday, the Department of Labor will issue its employment market report for February. Economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires forecast that total nonfarm payrolls dropped by 75,000 last month following a 20,000 fall in January.

The unemployment rate, which is calculated using a separate household survey, is seen edging up to 9.8% from 9.7%.