The Senate will take up the estate tax issue when it returns from its August recess.[@@]
Sen. Bill Frist, the Senate majority leader, announced plans for action on the estate tax issue earlier this week on the Senate floor.
Frist said he would file a motion for cloture on H.R. 8, the Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act of 2005, before the Senate recesses.
The cloture motion, which would eliminate the possibility of a filibuster by limiting the time for debate on the bill, would be voted on when the Senate reconvenes in September, with a vote on passage for the bill itself shortly thereafter.
"The death tax is a vicious tax imposed on America's small businesses and families during a time of grieving and pain," Frist said. "It forces families to give up things their loved ones worked an entire lifetime to build. Eliminating this tax is a matter of principle. We must care for America's hardworking families by enabling them to retain their family's assets without paying a price."
The estate tax repeal passed in the House in April by a vote of 272 to 162, and Frist said he hoped the bill "will find a similar level of support here in the Senate."
