Reid’s bill as written, however, failed to get the needed 60 votes to proceed. It was defeated 48-46. Senators Chris Dodd (D.-Conn.) and Sen. Richard Shelby (R.-Ala.) were then charged with working out a substitute bill.
The revamped bill as worked out by Dodd and Shelby will be voted on by the Senate Tuesday, the day two high-drama hearings will be held by the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees to receive testimony from Army General David H. Petraeus and Ryan C. Crocker about progress in Iraq. If it gains the 60 votes needed for cloture, it will immediately proceed to a final vote.
Dodd-Shelby offers many of the same provisions as Reid’s original bill. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D.-Mo.) and Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R.-Iowa) wrote the measures in the bill to give homebuilders the net operating loss deduction, a $7,000 tax credit to those who purchase a home in the next two years and tax-exempt bond fund to pay for subprime mortgages
The Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation estimates the Baucus-Grassley provisions will cost taxpayers nearly than $11 billion over the next 10 years.
“It’s appropriate to use the tax code to help people buy homes and to help the many business that are tied to the housing industry recover from losses,” Grassley said in a statement.
The overall cost of Dodd-Shelby will be much higher than the cost of the Baucus-Grassley provisions. The underlying bill also includes $4 billion in Community Development Block grants for states and localities to purchase foreclosed and vacant properties and up to $100 million to fund “foreclosure prevention counseling.”
Since 1998, Grassley has received at least $28,500 from NAHB’s PAC. Shelby has received at least $17,500, Baucus $15,000 and Dodd $1,000, according to information from the Center for Responsive Politics.
Dodd-Shelby does not contain the bankruptcy code change that NAHB found offensive, although Sen. Richard Durbin (D.-Ill.) has said he may offer it as an amendment.
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