(Washington, DC) Congressman John Yarmuth (KY-3) and the Committee on Ways & Means have completed work on the $275 billion tax portion of a stimulus package that is aimed at jumpstarting America’s stalled economy. 

“This is the bold action necessary for working families to make it through these difficult times, and it will strengthen our foundation to ensure America’s economy thrives in the long term,” Yarmuth said. 

The Ways & Means bill will be combined with a spending section recently completed by the Appropriations Committee and could come to a vote on the House floor as early as next week.  The bill contains the following provisions:

• Investment in education: providing tens of millions of dollars to Louisville schools for construction and instruction over two years.
•  “Making Work Pay”: Tax Credit will cut taxes for more than 95% of working families in the US.
• Extension and expansion of unemployment insurance benefits through the end of 2009 and increasing the benefit by $25/week. 
• Greater eligibility of the child tax credit to millions of additional families.
• Assistance for Low-Income Elderly and Disabled with a one-time additional payment for recipients of Supplemental Security Income (SSI).
• Tax incentives to help small businesses grow.
• Higher education tax credit of up to $2,500 of the cost of college per year. 
• Strengthened housing market with incentives for first-time buyers to purchase homes by removing the repayment requirement on the existing $7,500 first-time home buyer credit for homes purchased between January 1, 2009 – June 30, 2009. 
• Lower healthcare costs by investing technology to cut through time-consuming red tape.
• Long-term Investments in Renewable Energy Production with tax credits for renewable energy sources to help create green jobs and reduce our dependency on foreign oil. 
• Investment in new technologies and expand our capacity to produce renewable energy: Creates new bonds for renewable energy to help finance facilities that generate electricity from the following: wind, closed-loop biomass; open-loop biomass; geothermal; small irrigation; hydropower; landfill gas; marine renewable; and trash combustion.
• Assistance to State and Local Governments: Provides direct assistance to governments to help them free up funding for local infrastructure projects to improve our roads, schools and bridges while also creating good-paying jobs.

“In Louisville, where families are struggling to keep their heads above water, the assistance cannot come soon enough.  Congress needs to move swiftly in working with President Obama to enact this legislation and provide the American people with some much needed relief,” Yarmuth added.