Reid tries for jobs act vote this week

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will try to get a vote on a piece of President Obama’s Jobs Act by the end of this week, but he acknowledged Monday that he might have to keep the Senate in session into the beginning of Friday’s week-long recess in order to do so.

If Reid fails, the next chance to vote on the Obama agenda would come after Halloween — a disappointment for the White House.

{mosads}The $35 billion jobs bill will be used to prevent teacher and first-responder layoffs, creating or saving 400,000 jobs, Reid said. It will be paid for by a 0.5 percent surtax on those making more than $1 million per year. The bill is sponsored by Reid and Sens. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.).

Although the White House is pressing for a vote as soon as possible, appropriations legislation stands in the way of immediate action.

The Senate will take up a 2012 spending bill at 4 p.m. on Monday. The jobs bill cannot be offered as an amendment to the bill because it raises taxes. The Senate cannot switch to the jobs bill without unanimous consent or by adopting a motion to proceed vote, which requires a super-majority of 60 votes.

“There is no reason we can’t finish the appropriations bill before the end of the week,” Reid told reporters, adding he was prepared “to keep Senate in session as long as necessary.”

“I hope my Republican colleagues will not put their desire to play political games or go home next week ahead of our responsibility to create jobs and get our economy back on track,” he said.

The spending bill combines three separate appropriations measures funding the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development. It is expected to attract a large number of amendments, and Reid said he wants to begin holding amendment votes Tuesday morning.

Reid wants to hold a Jobs Act vote every week, he said. The majority leader claimed 75 percent of Americans support spending money to hire more teachers, firefighters and police officers.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) however signaled he would work to oppose the teacher funding bill.

“It is disappointing that Senate Democrats are still focused on the same temporary stimulus spending that’s failed to solve our jobs crisis instead of bipartisan legislation that would lead to private-sector job growth,” he said in a statement.

Obama’s Jobs Act failed to gain 60 votes in the Senate last Tuesday, and Democrats are now attempting to get pieces of it enacted. The House next week will vote on one of the tax provisions of the act, aimed at ending a requirement that the federal government withhold 3 percent of payments to contractors as a down payment on future taxes.

—This story was updated at 4:37 p.m.