A conference committee tasked with extending the payroll tax cut in the U.S. is scheduled to meet three times this week. Members met publically last week, but little progress was made.

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives once again face a defining choice less than a month before the payroll tax holiday expires. Should they extend the tax break for workers and blunt President Obama’s campaign plan to tag them as a band of out-of-touch do-nothings, or should they extend a tax cut that many of them consider fundamentally bad policy? The split in strategy has senior Republicans more pessimistic about the prospect of an agreement.

Meanwhile, President Obama has highlighted the overall uptick in employment and urged the U.S. Congress to keep job growth steady by extending the payroll tax cut. Obama told supporters on Feb. 4 to pressure their representatives in Congress to pass the administration’s plan to help homeowners refinance their mortgages. The plan could save homeowners approx. $3,000 a year.

Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), who would be charged with steering the proposal to the House floor, dismissed Obama’s proposal as “not a serious plan to help the nation’s housing market.”