President Signs Bill Providing Temporary Extension of Expiring Benefits

Ending a political stalemate, both the House and Senate on Friday approved a measure that provides a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut, emergency unemployment insurance benefits, and delay in the planned cut of Medicare reimbursement rates to doctors, commonly known as “doc fix” provisions. President Obama signed the Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011 (H.R. 3765) into law hours later. This bill is similar to legislation (H.R. 3630) the Senate approved last Saturday, but includes provisions allowing businesses to use their current accounting structure to process the temporary payroll tax break, and will require the House and Senate to work together to draft a bill that would extend these provisions for all of 2012.

In a press release, bill sponsor Rep. David Camp (R-MI) said that the amended bill “fixes a critical flaw in the hastily passed Senate bill, which failed to provide employers with a workable mechanism with which to implement a partial-year payroll tax holiday.”

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