WEEK ENDING JULY 16, 1999

Death/Gift Tax Elimination Approved by
House Ways and Means Committee.

House Ways and Means Committee passes tax bill including estate tax relief. The House Ways and Means Committee passed "The Financial Freedom Act of 1999" (H.R. 2488), an $864 billion, 10-year tax cut bill. In addition to providing a 10 percent across-the-board individual tax cut, the legislation also calls for the elimination of estate and gift taxes. The estate tax proposal contained in the bill begins phasing down the estate tax in 2001, leading to a full repeal in 2009.

House floor consideration of the tax bill is tentatively scheduled to begin next Wednesday, July 21. "I expect it to be received very, very well by the Republicans on the floor of the House," said House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Archer (R-TX). Although the Ways and Means Committee action is just the first step toward enacting tax cuts, Archer indicated that the Republican leadership in the House and Senate are "going to make every effort" to send President Clinton a tax bill before Congress leaves for their August Congressional recess. President Clinton has threatened to veto the House Republican tax cut bill.

Senate action on tax bill begins next week. The Senate Finance Committee will begin marking up the tax bill authored by Senate Finance Chairman Bill Roth (R-DE) on Tuesday, July 23. Roth presented the details of his Chairman's mark to committee members Thursday night. The Roth bill is similar to the Archer tax bill in that it includes marriage penalty tax relief and some individual rate relief for those in the 15 percent tax bracket. However, Roth would provide no capital gains tax relief and would reduce but not repeal estate/death taxes.

House trade hearing announced on upcoming WTO trade round. The House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee announced plans to hold a hearing on August 5 to discuss the United States negotiating objectives for the upcoming World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Meeting. The objective of the hearing will be to receive testimony on specific objectives for the negotiation, the outlook for a successful meeting, and the anticipated impact of launching a new round of WTO negotiations. AIADA has submitted a request to testify at the hearing on the economic impact of the 25 percent import truck tariff.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
"If the Reform Party nominated me,
I would probably run and probably win."
Donald Trump on prospects for 2000
presidential race.
National Journal, July 17, 1999

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