House, Senate make payroll tax cut deal

(CBS/AP)�

Updated: 5:48 p.m. ET

House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday that his fellow GOP congressmen have agreed on a deal to extend payroll tax cuts that would have expired at the end of the year. The announcement ends yet another episode of political brinksmanship in Washington that has contributed greatly to Congress' abysmal approval ratings.

The agreement allows the House to adopt the Senate's version of the two-month extension, albeit with some tweaks, starting on Jan. 1. Boehner said he expects a vote to pass the legislation will occur "before Christmas."

"I think our members waged a good fight," Boehner said. "We were able to come to an agreement. We were abelt to fix what came out of the Senate."

A House GOP aide told CBS News earlier in the day that the House would accept a new bill reflecting the two-month extension previously passed in the Senate, but would add language protecting small businesses from costly new reporting requirements in the Senate bill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., will appoint conferees to work with Republicans in the coming weeks on a year-long extension of the tax cuts if the deal comes to fruition.

Obama on payroll tax cut: "Enough is enough"

House Speaker John Boehner met with House conferees and Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., Thursday afternoon, and they gave the speaker their blessing for him to reach an immediate resolution with Reid. Boehner then appointed Rep. Dave Chairman Camp, R-Mi., to hammer out the details of the legislative fix to the language in the Senate bill with Democratic Senator Max Baucus.

This afternoon, Boehner informed House leaders over the phone that he intended to reach out to Reid for a possible deal, and proceeded with steps aimed at setting up the conference call with House Republicans.�

Reid accepted Boehner's proposal, and the House is scheduled to be in pro forma session at 10 a.m. Friday -- which means the House could pass it by unanimous consent.

House Republicans had argued that the Senate bill - which was negotiated in a bipartisan effort by leaders Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Harry Reid, D-Nev., and which sailed through the chamber last weekend with broad bipartisan support - is a short-term fix for a long-term problem.

As late as Thursday morning, Boehner appeared to be sticking to his guns on the matter, even while fellow Republican McConnell urged House lawmakers to pass the Senate bill.

"Everybody has already agreed that the best policy is a one-year extension," Boehner told reporters on Capitol Hill. The speaker instead called on Democrats to appoint lawmakers to work with the Republicans to hammer out differences between a House bill and the Senate bill.

President Obama, however, pointed to House Republicans' refusal to yield as an exemplification of Washington's problems.

"What's happening right now is exactly why people just get so frustrated with Washington. This is it. This is exactly why people get so frustrated with Washington," he said. "This isn't a typical Democrat versus Republican issue. This is an issue where an overwhelming number of people in both parties agree. How can we not get that done?"

CBS News' Senate producer John Nolen, House producer Jill Jackson and Capitol Hill correspondent Nancy Cordes contributed to this report.

Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsMain/~3/mSWR2D_qk6k/

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