House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement on the House GOP’s decision to go ahead with a stand-alone payroll tax cut extension bill tomorrow. Pelosi said House Dems would support the GOP’s payroll extension bill, but said that it “should not be a substitute” for the remaining issues at hand – the Medicare “Doc Fix” and an unemployment benefits extension.
The House has voted twice overwhelmingly to instruct the Conference Committee to complete all of its work by this Friday, February 17. The House Republican leadership plans to bring to the floor a stand-alone payroll tax cut extension bill tomorrow. We have long proposed bringing this tax cut to the floor without payfors and House Democrats will support it so that taxes are not raised on 160 million working Americans, but this should not be a substitute for the work of the Conference Committee.
We continue to call upon the conferees to resolve the remaining issues – extending unemployment benefits and ensuring seniors can continue to see their doctors under Medicare – by February 17. If the Conference Committee is unable to complete its work on a comprehensive bill by that date, the Republican leadership should cancel the recess and remain in Washington next week. These crucial policies affect millions of middle class families and seniors and must not expire at the end of this month.
