Friends:

Last night, the House secured final passage of a comprehensive tax package that will stop the job-killing tax hikes scheduled for January 1st.  The legislation, H.R. 4853, received bipartisan support from 277 Republicans and Democrats. The bill now heads to the President to be signed into law.

The legislation is not perfect. It does not extend these tax rates for all Americans permanently, as many of my colleagues and I wanted, and it fails to put an end to the estate tax. 

However, the bill does prevent a $3.8 trillion tax increase on working Americans and small businesses for two years. It also makes key changes to the estate tax, reducing it from 55 percent to 35 percent and increasing the exemption amount to $5 million per spouse. Most importantly, the legislation will help provide our nation’s entrepreneurs with the certainty they need to take the first step toward hiring new employees and expanding their businesses.

Make no mistake: temporarily extending the current tax rates will not cure all that ails our economy, but it will put us on the right path to a stable and lasting recovery. 


Sam Graves
Ranking Member

Late Thursday, the Senate abruptly halted consideration of a controversial $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill.  The 1,924 page legislation included nearly 7,000 earmarks totaling $8.3 billion and signifies a 19 percent increase in discretionary spending since 2008. It was strongly opposed by Republicans, who uniformly pledged to block the bill.

On December 1st, the House passed H.J.Res 101, a Continuing Resolution (CR) to temporarily fund government operations. To this point, the House and Senate have been unable to work together to approve a long term appropriations bill. H.J.Res 101 is set to expire tomorrow, December 18th. The House is working on another CR that will fund the government until a more permanent solution can be reached. It is possible that the House will vote on the CR later today or tomorrow. 

• Washington Post: Congress Passes Extension of Bush-Era Tax Cuts  
• CNN: Make a Seasonal Job Stick
• NYT: Fed Proposes New Rules to Cut Debit Card Fees 

• Graves & Luetkemeyer on tax hike vote
• King: Obamacare is unconstitutional
• Coffman praises VA health care ruling
• Buchanan video on gov’t spending
• More Member Highlights…

• NFIB December Economic Trends report
• Heritage Foundation report on job creation
• More news and resources…