Senate Sends $70 Billion Tax Cut Measure to Conference

On February 2, the Senate approved, 66-31, a $70 billion tax bill (H.R. 4297) that would extend a number of expiring provisions in the 2003 tax law (P.L. 108-27). The House approved the measure on December 8 (see The Source, 12/9/05). A House and Senate conference committee will now meet to work out differences in the two versions of the bill.

During consideration of the bill, the Senate approved a substitute amendment offered by Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) that would substitute the text of the Tax Relief Act (S. 2020) as approved by the Senate on November 18 (see The Source, 11/21/05). The amendment was approved by voice vote.

The Senate also approved the following amendments:

• an amendment by Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) that would express the sense of the Senate that protecting middle-class families from the alternative minimum tax should be a higher priority for Congress than extending a tax cut that does not expire until the end of 2008, 73-24;
• an amendment by Sen. Jim Talent (R-MO) that would express the sense of the Senate that the child tax credit should be made permanent, by voice vote; and
• an amendment by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) that would authorize funding through FY2010 for veterans’ health care programs, by voice vote.The Senate rejected an amendment offered by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) that would have expressed the sense of the Senate that it supports the efforts of the Department of Health and Human Services, Medicare prescription drug plans, pharmacists, and others to implement the Medicare prescription drug program and to resolve problems that have occurred during the implementation of the program, 42-54.

  The following amendments were ruled out of order by the chair, and 60 votes were required to waive a budget point of order:

• an amendment by Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) that would have amended the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-173) to ensure that beneficiaries receive coverage under the Medicare prescription drug program, 52-45;
• an amendment by Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT) that would have authorized funding through FY2010 for veterans’ health care programs. The amendment would have been offset by reducing the tax cut for individuals with an annual income over $1 million, 44-53; and
• an amendment by Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) that would have repealed the two-year extension of the reduced tax rates on capital gains and dividends, 44-53.