Cardin - working closely with Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), also on the conference committee - would only agree to support the plan once Baucus and Camp agreed to shield current federal employees from the increased pension contribution.
Congressional leaders are gauging lawmakers' reactions to a tentative deal extending a 2 percentage-point payroll tax cut and added unemployment benefits for the rest of 2012. (Feb. 15)
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The Democrats would only agree to support the plan once Baucus and Camp agreed to shield current federal employees from the increased pension contribution. The final details of that pension increase were unclear early Thursday, but initial estimates on Wednesday suggested federal workers would need to pay an additional 0.75 percent to their pension plans.
In addition to the pension issue, Baucus and Camp agreed to cut $5 billion from a fund created under the health-care law to help primary-care physicians prevent illness — a fund that the president singled out for a similar cut in the budget for fiscal 2013 that he announced Monday.
Another last-minute dispute, according to lawmakers and aides in both parties, involved a plan to raise at least $15 billion in revenue from selling off public spectrum to telecommunication companies for better mobile communication. This has been a key issue for homeland security officials ever since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, after which emergency first responders began requesting their own frequency to better communicate with federal officials during disasters.
On Wednesday, negotiators agreed to auction off $22 billion worth of the spectrum to the industry, then siphon $7 billion of that into a fund for federal maintenance of a frequency dedicated to emergency first responders.
Republican leaders, who had been divided on the payroll tax package in December, decided over the weekend that the best decision on the contentious issue was to support a plan that would not require offsetting cuts for the tax holiday, which is worth about $100 billion. That decision, a reversal of their previous position, made the final negotiations much easier.
By early Wednesday, House GOP leaders were anxious to reach an agreement to put the issue behind them and refocus their agenda for the rest of the year.
“If the agreement comes together like I expect it will, the House should vote this week,” House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters Wednesday morning.
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