Congressional Groundhog Day

Once again this week, Congress will be battling over whether to extend long term unemployment benefits, as Democrats will try to use the final days before a Congressional break to jam this measure through the House and Senate over Republican opposition.

Twice before, Republicans have blocked such moves, allowing jobless and COBRA health benefits to run out for some unemployed workers.

Democrats then blasted the GOP move and finally overcame the Republican opposition.  

First, it was Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) who blocked action, drawing the ire of Democrats.  Last time, it was Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK).

The current extension of benefits runs out at the end of next week, on June 4, so if nothing is done this week, then we will replay that fight in June.

This time, Democrats have changed their strategy a bit, by adding in all kinds of extras to the jobless benefits extension, as they have combined it with a series of expired tax breaks for individuals and businesses, hoping that will further divide Republicans.

Democrats, have even given it a fancy nickname, calling the bill the "Promoting American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act", H.R. 4213.

You can read the 433 page bill at http://bit.ly/8YCATC or download a 29 page summary of it at http://bit.ly/alChqY .

The new bill includes about 50 very popular tax cuts, which expired at the beginning of the year.  They are known as the "tax extenders" because instead of adding them to the regular budget, they get "extended" every year.

We will spend a lot of time this week on this bill and the supplemental spending bill up today in the Senate.  Here is the basic rundown of what's in the tax extenders/jobless benefits bill.

You will quickly be able to tell why it is likely to get a lot of support in both parties, and why it isn't be cheap, as the Congressional Budget Office says the bill will spend $174 billion - with most of it (except for the Medicare Doc Fix) offset by new revenue provisions (taxes) that are listed below as well.

TITLE I--INFRASTRUCTURE INCENTIVES
Sec. 101. Extension of Build America Bonds.
Sec. 102. Exempt-facility bonds for sewage and water supply facilities.
Sec. 103. Extension of exemption from alternative minimum tax treatment for certain tax-exempt bonds.
Sec. 104. Extension and additional allocations of recovery zone bond authority.
Sec. 105. Allowance of new markets tax credit against alternative minimum tax.
Sec. 106. Extension of tax-exempt eligibility for loans guaranteed by Federal home loan banks.
Sec. 107. Extension of temporary small issuer rules for allocation of tax-exempt interest expense by financial institutions.
TITLE II--EXTENSION OF EXPIRING PROVISIONS
Subtitle A--Energy
Sec. 201. Alternative motor vehicle credit for new qualified hybrid motor vehicles other than passenger automobiles and light trucks.
Sec. 202. Incentives for biodiesel and renewable diesel.
Sec. 203. Credit for electricity produced at certain open-loop biomass facilities.
Sec. 204. Extension and modification of credit for steel industry fuel.
Sec. 205. Credit for producing fuel from coke or coke gas.
Sec. 206. New energy efficient home credit.
Sec. 207. Excise tax credits and outlay payments for alternative fuel and alternative fuel mixtures.
Sec. 208. Special rule for sales or dispositions to implement FERC or State electric restructuring policy for qualified electric utilities.
Sec. 209. Suspension of limitation on percentage depletion for oil and gas from marginal wells.
Sec. 210. Direct payment of energy efficient appliances tax credit.
Sec. 211. Modification of standards for windows, doors, and skylights with respect to the credit for nonbusiness energy property.
Subtitle B--Individual Tax Relief
PART I--MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS
Sec. 221. Deduction for certain expenses of elementary and secondary school teachers.
Sec. 222. Additional standard deduction for State and local real property taxes.
Sec. 223. Deduction of State and local sales taxes.
Sec. 224. Contributions of capital gain real property made for conservation purposes.
Sec. 225. Above-the-line deduction for qualified tuition and related expenses.
Sec. 226. Tax-free distributions from individual retirement plans for charitable purposes.
Sec. 227. Look-thru of certain regulated investment company stock in determining gross estate of nonresidents.
PART II--LOW-INCOME HOUSING CREDITS
Sec. 231. Election for direct payment of low-income housing credit for 2010.
Subtitle C--Business Tax Relief
Sec. 241. Research credit.
Sec. 242. Indian employment tax credit.
Sec. 243. New markets tax credit.
Sec. 244. Railroad track maintenance credit.
Sec. 245. Mine rescue team training credit.
Sec. 246. Employer wage credit for employees who are active duty members of the uniformed services.
Sec. 247. 5-year depreciation for farming business machinery and equipment.
Sec. 248. 15-year straight-line cost recovery for qualified leasehold improvements, qualified restaurant buildings and improvements, and qualified retail improvements.
Sec. 249. 7-year recovery period for motorsports entertainment complexes.
Sec. 250. Accelerated depreciation for business property on an Indian reservation.
Sec. 251. Enhanced charitable deduction for contributions of food inventory.
Sec. 252. Enhanced charitable deduction for contributions of book inventories to public schools.
Sec. 253. Enhanced charitable deduction for corporate contributions of computer inventory for educational purposes.
Sec. 254. Election to expense mine safety equipment.
Sec. 255. Special expensing rules for certain film and television productions.
Sec. 256. Expensing of environmental remediation costs.
Sec. 257. Deduction allowable with respect to income attributable to domestic production activities in Puerto Rico.
Sec. 258. Modification of tax treatment of certain payments to controlling exempt organizations.
Sec. 259. Exclusion of gain or loss on sale or exchange of certain brownfield sites from unrelated business income.
Sec. 260. Timber REIT modernization.
Sec. 261. Treatment of certain dividends of regulated investment companies.
Sec. 262. RIC qualified investment entity treatment under FIRPTA.
Sec. 263. Exceptions for active financing income.
Sec. 264. Look-thru treatment of payments between related controlled foreign corporations under foreign personal holding company rules.
Sec. 265. Basis adjustment to stock of S corps making charitable contributions of property.
Sec. 266. Empowerment zone tax incentives.
Sec. 267. Tax incentives for investment in the District of Columbia.
Sec. 268. Renewal community tax incentives.
Sec. 269. Temporary increase in limit on cover over of rum excise taxes to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Sec. 270. Payment to American Samoa in lieu of extension of economic development credit.
Sec. 271. Election to temporarily utilize unused AMT credits determined by domestic investment.
Sec. 272. Study of extended tax expenditures.
Subtitle D--Temporary Disaster Relief Provisions
PART I--NATIONAL DISASTER RELIEF
Sec. 281. Waiver of certain mortgage revenue bond requirements.
Sec. 282. Losses attributable to federally declared disasters.
Sec. 283. Special depreciation allowance for qualified disaster property.
Sec. 284. Net operating losses attributable to federally declared disasters.
Sec. 285. Expensing of qualified disaster expenses.
PART II--REGIONAL PROVISIONS
SUBPART A--NEW YORK LIBERTY ZONE
Sec. 291. Special depreciation allowance for nonresidential and residential real property.
Sec. 292. Tax-exempt bond financing.
SUBPART B--GO ZONE
Sec. 295. Increase in rehabilitation credit.
Sec. 296. Work opportunity tax credit with respect to certain individuals affected by Hurricane Katrina for employers inside disaster areas.
Sec. 297. Extension of low-income housing credit rules for buildings in GO zones.
TITLE III--PENSION PROVISIONS
Subtitle A--Pension Funding Relief
PART 1--SINGLE-EMPLOYER PLANS
Sec. 301. Extended period for single-employer defined benefit plans to amortize certain shortfall amortization bases.
Sec. 302. Application of extended amortization period to plans subject to prior law funding rules.
Sec. 303. Suspension of certain funding level limitations.
Sec. 304. Lookback for credit balance rule.
Sec. 305. Information reporting.
Sec. 306. Rollover of amounts received in airline carrier bankruptcy.
PART 2--MULTIEMPLOYER PLANS
Sec. 311. Optional use of 30-year amortization periods.
Sec. 312. Optional longer recovery periods for multiemployer plans in endangered or critical status.
Sec. 313. Modification of certain amortization extensions under prior law.
Sec. 314. Alternative default schedule for plans in endangered or critical status.
Sec. 315. Transition rule for certifications of plan status.
Subtitle B--Fee Disclosure
Sec. 321. Short title of subtitle.
Sec. 322. Amendments to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.
Sec. 323. Amendments to the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.
Sec. 324. Regulatory authority and coordination.
Sec. 325. Effective date of subtitle.
TITLE IV--REVENUE OFFSETS
Subtitle A--Foreign Provisions
Sec. 401. Rules to prevent splitting foreign tax credits from the income to which they relate.
Sec. 402. Denial of foreign tax credit with respect to foreign income not subject to United States taxation by reason of covered asset acquisitions.
Sec. 403. Separate application of foreign tax credit limitation, etc., to items resourced under treaties.
Sec. 404. Limitation on the amount of foreign taxes deemed paid with respect to section 956 inclusions.
Sec. 405. Special rule with respect to certain redemptions by foreign subsidiaries.
Sec. 406. Modification of affiliation rules for purposes of rules allocating interest expense.
Sec. 407. Termination of special rules for interest and dividends received from persons meeting the 80-percent foreign business requirements.
Sec. 408. Source rules for income on guarantees.
Sec. 409. Limitation on extension of statute of limitations for failure to notify Secretary of certain foreign transfers.
Subtitle B--Personal Service Income Earned in Pass-thru Entities
Sec. 411. Partnership interests transferred in connection with performance of services.
Sec. 412. Income of partners for performing investment management services treated as ordinary income received for performance of services.
Sec. 413. Employment tax treatment of professional service businesses.
Subtitle C--Corporate Provisions
Sec. 421. Treatment of securities of a controlled corporation exchanged for assets in certain reorganizations.
Sec. 422. Taxation of boot received in reorganizations.
Subtitle D--Other Provisions
Sec. 431. Modifications with respect to Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund.
Sec. 432. Time for payment of corporate estimated taxes.
TITLE V--UNEMPLOYMENT, HEALTH, AND OTHER ASSISTANCE
Subtitle A--Unemployment Insurance and Other Assistance
Sec. 501. Extension of unemployment insurance provisions.
Sec. 502. Coordination of emergency unemployment compensation with regular compensation.
Sec. 503. Extension of the Emergency Contingency Fund.
Subtitle B--Health Provisions
Sec. 511. Extension of premium assistance for COBRA benefits.
Sec. 512. Extension of section 508 reclassifications.
Sec. 513. Repeal of delay of RUG-IV.
Sec. 514. Limitation on reasonable costs payments for certain clinical diagnostic laboratory tests furnished to hospital patients in certain rural areas.
Sec. 515. Funding for claims reprocessing.
Sec. 516. Extension of ARRA increase in FMAP.
Sec. 517. Medicaid and CHIP technical corrections.
Sec. 518. Addition of inpatient drug discount program to 340B drug discount program.
Sec. 519. Continued inclusion of orphan drugs in definition of covered outpatient drugs with respect to children's hospitals under the 340B drug discount program.
Sec. 520. Conforming amendment related to waiver of coinsurance for preventive services.
Sec. 521. Establish a CMS-IRS data match to identify fraudulent providers.
Sec. 522. Clarification of effective date of part B special enrollment period for disabled TRICARE beneficiaries.
Sec. 523. Medicare sustainable growth rate reform.
Sec. 524. Adjustment to Medicare payment localities.
Sec. 525. Clarification of 3-day payment window.
TITLE VI--OTHER PROVISIONS
Sec. 601. Extension of national flood insurance program.
Sec. 602. Allocation of geothermal receipts.
Sec. 603. Small business loan guarantee enhancement extensions.
Sec. 604. Emergency agricultural disaster assistance.
Sec. 605. Summer employment for youth.
Sec. 606. Housing Trust Fund.
Sec. 607. The Individual Indian Money Account Litigation Settlement Act of 2010.
Sec. 608. Appropriation of funds for final settlement of claims from In re Black Farmers Discrimination Litigation.
Sec. 609. Expansion of eligibility for concurrent receipt of military retired pay and veterans' disability compensation to include all chapter 61 disability retirees regardless of disability rating percentage or years of service.
Sec. 610. Extension of use of 2009 poverty guidelines.
Sec. 611. Refunds disregarded in the administration of Federal programs and federally assisted programs.
Sec. 612. State court improvement program.
Sec. 613. Qualifying timber contract options.
Sec. 614. Extension and flexibility for certain allocated surface transportation programs.
Sec. 615. Community College and Career Training Grant Program.
Sec. 616. Extensions of duty suspensions on cotton shirting fabrics and related provisions.
Sec. 617. Modification of Wool Apparel Manufacturers Trust Fund.
Sec. 618. Department of Commerce Study.
Sec. 619. ARRA planning and reporting. Once again this week, Congress will be battling over whether to extend long term unemployment benefits, as Democrats will try to use the final days before a Congressional break to jam this measure through the House and Senate over Republican opposition. Twice before, Republicans have blocked such moves, allowing jobless ...