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Los Angeles TimesWASHINGTON -- Overcoming months of gridlock, the Senate approved a small-business bill on Thursday that handed President Obama an election-year victory but showed just how difficult it had become for lawmakers to agree on the best way to help the sluggish economy and create jobs.
The measure passed by a 61-38 vote, with just two Republicans crossing party lines to support the bill, which would create a $30-billion small-business lending fund and provide $12 billion in tax breaks to help companies invest and hire. The bill now heads to the House, where it is expected to pass swiftly.
Yet the months-long impasse over the bill to aid small businesses, which have been hard hit during the economic downturn and are championed by both parties as engines of the recovery, highlights the partisan divisions before the fall midterm election.
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The House passed a version of the bill earlier this year, and at one point over the summer, frustrated House lawmakers walked across the Capitol to stage a quiet sit-in at the Senate chamber to protest the delays on this and other jobs bills.
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