Senate Approves $15 Billion Measure to Prompt More Job Hires

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) today said he is hopeful that the payroll tax holiday incentives included in a Senate jobs bill will help bring down the unemployment rate in Mississippi   www.bls.gov/eag/eag.ms.htm.

Cochran voted for Senate passage of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act (HR.2847), which was approved on a 70-28 vote.

"The jobless rate in Mississippi is increasingly troubling, and this measure is intended to prompt employers to put more people to work,” Cochran said. “This bill is not everything I would want in legislation to bolster our economy, but it does have merits that I believe might help decrease our unemployment rate."

Cochran initially voted against proceeding to HR.2847, because it was stripped of provisions in a larger bipartisan legislative jobs package that originally included a version of the crop disaster assistance plan he authored last November to aid farmers in Mississippi and other disaster areas.

"I am disappointed in the parliamentary tactics employed by the Majority Leader to cast aside a bipartisan plan and then to block any amendments to his alternative,” Cochran said.  “I hope we can work in a more cooperative and bipartisan manner as we consider legislation to improve our economy."

The primary focus of HR.2847 is payroll tax forgiveness, which would exempt employers from paying their share of payroll taxes on any new workers hired between

February 4, 2010, and January 1, 2011.  A separate $1,000 credit would also be given to employers for any employee who qualified for payroll tax forgiveness and who remained continually on the job for 12 months.

The measure also includes bond financing for state and local infrastructure projects, small business expensing relief and a federal highway programs extension.