(BONDBUYER) WASHINGTON — House Ways and Means Committee chairman Sander Levin Wednesday introduced a new bill that enables Congress to make another attempt at extending several bond provisions slated to expire at the end of the year, including Build America Bonds.
The Investing In American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act — HR 5893 — would extend BABs for two years, along with other extensions to temporary bond provisions first enacted in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
The bill “is about moving forward to create opportunities for Americans in America using job-creating programs such as the Build America Bonds,” Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said in a statement. “Experts have deemed these bonds, which helped support nearly two million jobs, to be one of the most successful recovery efforts in place. Republican and Democratic governors alike have praised these programs.”
House Democrats plan to bring the bill straight to the House floor and hope to pass it before Congress breaks for a month-long recess beginning Aug. 9, according to sources. The Senate would then take up the measure after the break.The House previously passed a bill extending temporary bond provisions, but it ground to a halt in the Senate after Democrats were unable to garner 60 votes on the package to block a filibuster threatened by Republicans. The bond provisions were eventually stripped from that bill, but have found a new home in Levin’s measure.
The legislation would gradually reduce the subsidy rate for BABs from the current 35% level to 32% for bonds sold in 2011, and 30% for those sold in 2012.
Its a 2.8 trillion dollar market, so they better have their ducks lined up on the issue.
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