Sen. Levin and Sen. Kent Conrad introduce the Cut Unjustified Tax Loopholes Act, which would close a number of tax loopholes that increase the deficit and the tax burden carried by middle-class Americans by allowing individuals and corporations to dodge the taxes they owe.

The Senate adopts an amendment offered by Sen. Levin, Sen. Kent Conrad and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse that adds important new tools to the fight against offshore tax abuses that increase the budget deficit and disadvantage middle-class taxpayers.

In a speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Levin outlines how Facebook will avoid billions of dollars in corporate taxes using a loophole related to the granting of stock options to employees. Levin has long sought the closing of this stock-option loophole to reduce the budget deficit.

The Senate passes legislation supported by Sen. Levin to extend for a full year a cut in federal payroll taxes and extending emergency unemployment benefits. Sen. Levin calls the extension "important tax relief that is focused on middle-class families who have suffered greatly during the Great Recession."

Sen. Levin receives the Distinguished Service Award from the Center for the National Interest, a nonpartisan national security think tank. In remarks to the awards dinner, he calls for a return to Michigan Sen. Arthur Vandenberg’s philosophy of bipartisanship, seeking "national security ahead of partisan advantage."

Sen. Levin introduces the Closing the Derivatives Blended Rate Loophole Act, which would end a tax loophole that adds to the deficit and subsidizes short-term trading in complex financial derivatives.

Sen. Levin votes for legislation to prevent an end to payroll tax relief and emergency unemployment benefits, saying the bill is misguided in several ways but that the extensions are vitally important.

In a statement after the co-chairs of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction announce that they have failed to reach agreement by their statutory deadline, Sen. Levin issues a statement renewing his call for balanced deficit reduction that includes revenue as well as spending cuts and says members of Congress must compromise to avoid the devastating automatic cuts that will take effect if there is no bipartisan agreement.

Sen. Levin, as chairman of the Armed Services Committee, sends a set of deficit reduction recommendations to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. Levin recommends against further cuts in discretionary military spending such as weapons modernization, citing deep cuts already in place. He recommends the committee consider establishing a commission to examine all areas of military compensation.

Sen. Levin releases a report by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that raises serious questions about proposals to give multinational corporations a “repatriation tax holiday” that would cut taxes on revenue brought back to the United States from overseas. The report finds that a previous holiday, in 2004, did not succeed in creating jobs or boosting investment, and that companies that took advantage of the tax holiday increased stock repurchases and executive compensation despite legal prohibitions against using repatriated funds for such purposes.