Reid Plans to Rewrite Contractor Repeal to Punish Tax Cheats

November 2, 2011

Bloomberg

By Steven Sloan

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to rewrite a House-passed measure repealing a rule that governments withhold 3 percent of payments to contractors starting in 2013, complicating the fate of a bill backed by the Obama administration and congressional Republicans.

The Nevada Democrat told reporters yesterday that he wants to ensure that the requirement’s repeal would apply only to government contractors that are current on their tax obligations.

The comments were made less than a week after the House approved the repeal legislation in a 405-16 vote. The prospect of changes to that measure drew a frustrated response from House Republicans and business groups.

“Both the three percent provision and the pay-for were specifically supported by the White House,” Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. “It’s tough to understand why the Senate Democratic leadership doesn’t just pass the House-passed bill.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, also called for Senate passage of the House bill.

“I would hope that the Senate majority would be willing to take that up and pass it and send it down to the president for his signature in the near future,” he told reporters.

Read more here: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-01/reid-plans-rewrite-of-house-backed-contractor-tax-repeal-bill.html

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