Senate clears test vote to help veterans, contractors

[cal04]

Source: CNN

The Senate overwhelmingly cleared a test vote allowing it to take up a bill this week to help unemployed veterans seeking jobs as well as federal contractors facing a new tax burden in 2013.

The Senate voted 94-to-1 on Monday to move forward and take up the bill soon.

Aimed at helping unemployed veterans, the bill gives employers tax credits of up to $5,600 for hiring those who have been unemployed longer than six months. It would also give employers a tax credit of up to $9,600 for hiring long-unemployed disabled veterans.

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"There's no good reason to oppose this bill. Not one," Obama said in a Monday address touting the tax credits and other executive orders aimed at helping veterans find jobs. "It's time for (us) to put country before party, put our veterans back to work."



Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/07/news/economy/contractors_taxes/index.htm

[teddy51]

1. Good for them, about time something good came out of congress. n/t

[midnight]

2. I agree our vets need to get back to work... However to pay for this program

it is going to be taken from the va loan program...

[Iliyah]

3. As long as there is no tax increase for the 1%

this will pass because we all know how the gopers love Veterans.

[pmorlan1]

4. Yes on the employer tax credits but...

I'd like to know more about this part of the bill:

Senate Democrats and Republicans both support repeal of a Bush-era tax accountability law that would have allowed the federal, state and local governments to withhold 3% of pay to contractors, allowing those dollars to be applied as a credit toward federal income taxes. That law was supposed to take effect on Jan. 1, 2013.

Congress initially passed the withholding requirements back in 2006 to ensure that the government collected all taxes owed by contractors. Big business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have been pushing to repeal the measure.