Committee members voted 25-15 to approve the measure, HR 4849. The $16.8 billion bill includes several tax provisions including the Build America Bonds extension. This bond program was created last year by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and extended Thursday by a jobs measure signed by President Barack Obama. (see related story)

The House bill would further extend Build America Bonds through 2013 at a cost of $7.6 billion, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. The bonds allow states and municipalities to finance infrastructure projects with an interest subsidy from the federal government. State and local governments have issued $78 billion worth of Build America Bonds in more than 800 sales during the program's first year. So far this year, the program accounts for 23 percent of the municipal bond market, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. The bonds are designed to appeal to a broader set of investors than traditional tax-exempt bonds traditionally used by state and local governments.

Currently the interest subsidy paid by the federal government to the state or local government issuing the bonds is 35 percent of the bonds' interest costs. That figure would be reduced to 33 percent in 2011, 31 percent in 2012, and 30 percent in 2013 under the House bill approved by the Ways and Means Committee. Obama has separately proposed making the program permanent at a subsidy rate of 28 percent.