Today the House of Representatives will seek to extend payroll tax relief for a full year to help families and job creators by moving to a formal conference committee that can resolve the differences between the House and Senate-passed bills.

Early last week, the House passed a reasonable, responsible bill that extends payroll tax relief for a full year, reforms and extends unemployment insurance, and includes a two-year “doc fix” while also advancing bipartisan measures that support private-sector job creation – “exactly what the president asked us to do,” noted Speaker Boehner.

Senate Democrats, on the other hand, proposed a short-term two-month payroll tax cut extension that non-partisan tax experts call “unworkable” and say could “create substantial problems, confusion, and costs” for job creators. That’s why the House will vote today to reject the short-term Senate proposal and appoint conferees to hammer out an agreement between the House and the Senate.

This chart from the House Ways & Means Committee compares the House and Senate-passed bills:

President Obama says he won’t go on vacation until the payroll tax bill is done and says Congress shouldn’t either.  Even Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) said on December 7, “We’re not going to leave town until [the payroll tax cut is] complete…” House Republicans agree. 

“[T]he best way to resolve the difference between the two-month extension and the full-year bill,” says Speaker Boehner, “is to follow the regular order here in Congress.  When there’s a disagreement between the two chambers we sit down in a conference and resolve those differences.” By appointing conferees to a formal conference committee now, the House will have taken an important step toward finishing this important payroll tax relief and jobs measure before the end of the year.

After today, Senate Democratic leaders have two choices: 1) stay on vacation and watch as their refusal to negotiate leads to tax increases on middle-class families. Or 2) return to Washington and do the jobs their constituents sent them here to do. The House is here and ready to work. We hope Senate Democrats will join us.