Hartzler votes for payroll tax cut linked with pipeline construction

Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler (MO-4) has voted to protect taxpayers from a scheduled January increase in their Social Security deductions by voting for H.R. 3630 – the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act. The bill maintains, for another year, the reduction in the Social Security payroll tax that Congress approved last December.

“This legislation protects workers from a payroll deduction increase but does it in a way that does not borrow resources from the Social Security trust fund,” said Hartzler. “The plan protects and funds the trust fund by freezing pay for government workers, including Members of Congress and their staffs, and reforming wasteful federal programs.”

“This bill also creates private sector jobs,” added Hartzler. “It does so by directly supporting such job creation plans as the Keystone XL energy pipeline and revising the Environmental Protection Agency’s job killing boiler Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) standards.”

The Keystone XL pipeline, which is under attack from some environmentalists, will carry much-needed oil from Canada to refineries here in the United States. This bipartisan project is supported by both businesses and unions. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers estimates the pipeline will create an estimated 20,000 manufacturing and construction jobs in the United States.

Revising the MACT regulation will help many schools, hospitals, universities, farms, manufacturing plants, and power plants in the Fourth Congressional District by saving them from being forced to conduct expensive and pointless emissions testing, and comply with very difficult and complicated control standards. There is bipartisan support for removing this burden.

Having passed the House, the bill now moves to the Senate for its consideration.