Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., center, accompanied by Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., left, and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington today, after the Senate passed the jobs bill. (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg)

By James Oliphant | The Senate today passed by a 68-29 margin a $17.6 billion measure
intended to spur hiring nationwide, sending the bill to the White House
for the president’s expected signature.

Once the bill becomes law, it would mark the first significant piece of
job-creation legislation to pass since President Barack Obama and the
Democratic Congress earlier this year declared that they would “pivot”
and focus on reversing widespread unemployment.

The bill would grant employers an exemption from their 6.2 percent
Social Security payroll contribution for every new employee hired
through the rest of the year, as long as that employee had been out of
work for at least 60 days. There would also be an additional $1,000
income tax credit for every new employee kept on the payroll for 52
weeks.

Experts are split as to whether the payroll tax holiday will boost
hiring.

The measure would also make it easier for businesses to write off
equipment purchases and would pump billions into federal highway and
mass-transit funding programs, which Democrats hope will jump-start
construction projects. The bill’s cost is offset by tax code
modifications.

“The bill we passed today is a targeted approach designed to get
Americans back to work right away by creating jobs to rebuild our
country’s infrastructure and providing tax cuts for businesses to hire
new workers,” said Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate
Finance Committee.

The bill, Baucus said, “represents a critical victory in our
job-creation agenda and we will continue working to get Americans back
to work this year.”

The bill had passed the Senate last month, but was modified by the
House, which required a second Senate vote.

The House is currently considering a $140 billion package passed by the
Senate last week that contains a series of industry-friendly tax breaks
such as a credit for research and development as well as extensions of
unemployment benefits and COBRA insurance subsidies for the unemployed
through the rest of the year.

The Senate is expected to turn its attention to legislation that would
provide struggling small businesses with increased access to credit.