Agreement Reached on American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

Negotiators have resolved the differences between the House and Senate versions of the stimulus bill, Sen. Harry Reid said Wednesday... Negotiators worked late into the night to iron out differences between the two versions of the stimulus bill.

... Reid said this middle ground creates more jobs than original Senate bill, and spends less than the original House bill.

Multiple Democratic sources earlier offered details on topics that had to be worked out:

• 35 percent of the bill would be tax cuts, 65 percent would be spending.

• Tax breaks for workers that had been set at $1,000 per family or $500 per individual would be scaled back to $800 per family and $400 per individual.

• $44 billion in aid to states, including money for education and other services.

• More funding to help people buy health insurance through the federal COBRA program.

• $6 billion to $9 billion for modernizing and repairing schools.

... Montana Sen. Max Baucus, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said it is possible the House could take the bill up as early as Thursday and the Senate possibly Friday.

Democrats in the Senate must hold on to at least two Republican votes in order to get the 60 votes needed to pass the bill. Not a single Republican voted in support of the House version of the bill, but the House Democrats have a large enough majority that they were still able to pass it.

The three Republican senators who voted in favor of the package indicated Wednesday that they were pleased with the agreement.