Lobbyists Eager for Short-Term Fiscal Deal
By Janie Lorber and Kate Ackley
Roll Call Staff
Nov. 8, 2012, Midnight
K Street’s calls for a legislative Band-Aid to carry clients past the “fiscal cliff” and into the next Congress became increasingly desperate Wednesday.
Indeed, the day after the elections provided little promise of how, or whether, the lame-duck Congress would manage to compromise on a plan to avert the impending budgetary time bomb.
“The stakes over the fiscal cliff discussion just got significantly higher,” said David French, chief lobbyist at the National Retail Federation. “If Washington was looking to guidance from the voters on the path ahead, voters weren’t exactly clear.”
As the nation approaches its debt ceiling yet again, lawmakers have less than 20 legislative days to decide what to do about the simultaneous expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts and the Social Security payroll tax holiday, as well as the first round of sequestration cuts.
Every interest group has a stake.
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