Senate Legacy? Inaction

Senate stalls on welfare reform and death tax permanency

WASHINGTON - Frustrated with the sluggish Senate’s lack of action on several key pieces of legislation, House lawmakers supported two resolutions today urging the other body to reauthorize welfare reform and permanently eliminate the death tax.

H. Res. 525 prompts the Senate to allow a vote on H.R. 4737, the Personal Responsibility, Work, and Family Promotion Act of 2002. H.R. 4737, passed by the House in May, reauthorizes the 1996 landmark welfare reform bill. Set to expire on September 30, 2002, this legislation cut the number of recipients on welfare rolls by 60 percent and lifted three million children out of poverty. Despite the fact that fifty Senators wrote a letter last week in favor of a bringing welfare reform to the floor, no vote has been scheduled.

“It is my sincere hope that we will soon get to a conference with the other body so we can work out our differences on this important legislation to reauthorize welfare reform. More than two million low-income families in America are dependent on us for help,” said Wally Herger (R-CA), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Human Resources.

The House also considered H. Res. 524, which urges the Senate to take up a vote to permanently repeal the unfair death tax. The House passed H.R. 2143, the Permanent Death Tax Repeal of 2002, in June in order to alleviate Americans from giving away enormous sums of their hard-earned money, and sometimes even their family-owned farms or small businesses, to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), when a loved one dies. Sadly, this legislation has not been scheduled for floor action.

“The death tax is an obscure and unfair punishment for a lifetime of hard work,” said Bill Thomas (R-CA), Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means. “By stalling on the death tax and welfare reform, the Senate is shaping their legacy -- inaction.”

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