Estate Tax Vote Postponed Due to Katrina

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Senate will delay voting on legislation to repeal the estate tax, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said after Democrats urged Republicans to make helping Gulf Coast hurricane victims the priority when Congress returns, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday.

"We want to address the urgent needs that relate to the people that are in such desperate shape down there," Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said Monday. Two hours later, Frist told reporters that the Senate is delaying the estate tax measure.

Frist last week said that Republican lawmakers would pursue a vote on estate tax repeal as the first order of business when the Senate returned after the August recess, which ends tomorrow.

Reid, of Nevada, said Monday that a Republican push for a vote on the estate tax soon after the hurricane would be "a travesty on top of a tragedy."

-- NYSSCPA.org News Staff

Posted on 9/6/05