The House Appropriations Committee, House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee all expect to begin marking up the economic stimulus legislation in meetings January 22. Speaker Pelosi says she will bring the bill to the House floor sometime the week of January 26. It may take a few days after the legislation is introduced for the bill to be printed and available to the general public and all the members of Congress, and some Senators and Representatives are already chafing under the absence of detail for their consideration while negotiations about the size and contents of the bill continue to be debated.
The package is now estimated to have a total cost in the range of $800 billion to $850 billion. There could be as much as a total of $320 to $340 billion for the construction industry overall, with $110 billion of that devoted to roads, bridges and airport runways. The Defense Department and House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha want $11 billion for non-weapons defense construction, with some of that to be spent on dependent housing and schools at European military bases. Another interesting add on could be $4 billion for development and implementation of a satellite based civilian air traffic control system.
Other major components of the economic stimulus under discussion include $80 billion in education block grants, $90 billion increase in Medicaid assistance, $35 billion in extension of unemployment insurance benefits, and $150 billion for the promised middle class tax cut. Senator Ben Nelson of Florida also expects to add in cash for NASA's development of the Constellation, to replace the Space Shuttle fleet, and for restoration of the Everglades.
Representative Barney Frank still wants at least $40 billion for home mortgage foreclosure relief, but that money could come out of the remaining $350 billion in TARP funds. Expect the proposed restriction of private aircraft ownership and leasing by banks receiving TARP funding to be dropped at the request of Dennis Moore and Todd Tiahrt of Kansas, where manufacture of general aviation planes is a big part of the state's economy.
The package is now estimated to have a total cost in the range of $800 billion to $850 billion. There could be as much as a total of $320 to $340 billion for the construction industry overall, with $110 billion of that devoted to roads, bridges and airport runways. The Defense Department and House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha want $11 billion for non-weapons defense construction, with some of that to be spent on dependent housing and schools at European military bases. Another interesting add on could be $4 billion for development and implementation of a satellite based civilian air traffic control system.
Other major components of the economic stimulus under discussion include $80 billion in education block grants, $90 billion increase in Medicaid assistance, $35 billion in extension of unemployment insurance benefits, and $150 billion for the promised middle class tax cut. Senator Ben Nelson of Florida also expects to add in cash for NASA's development of the Constellation, to replace the Space Shuttle fleet, and for restoration of the Everglades.
Representative Barney Frank still wants at least $40 billion for home mortgage foreclosure relief, but that money could come out of the remaining $350 billion in TARP funds. Expect the proposed restriction of private aircraft ownership and leasing by banks receiving TARP funding to be dropped at the request of Dennis Moore and Todd Tiahrt of Kansas, where manufacture of general aviation planes is a big part of the state's economy.
0 comments:
Post a Comment