Estate Tax, Wage Hike Teetering In Senate

The move infuriated Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), who had spent months seeking a compromise centered in part on the tax extensions. Frist thanked the two senators in a statement yesterday "for working hard to address the pensions issue," but he said that an impasse between House and Senate conferees forced him to try a different tack.

Aides to Frist said they believe they will prevail on a crucial vote (perhaps later this week) needed to overcome the Democrats' promised filibuster of the minimum wage-estate-tax bill. Backers will need 60 votes in the 100-member Senate to proceed. Republicans hold 55 seats. Even if a filibuster is overcome, the bill might be amended, forcing new negotiations with the House.

Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) "is confident the Senate will defeat this fiscally irresponsible estate-tax proposal, as we have in the past," said his spokesman, Jim Manley.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said in a statement, "Republicans are playing politics with the lives of hardworking people. . . . It's political blackmail to say the only way that minimum wage workers can get a raise is to give tax giveaways to the wealthiest Americans."

Frist used the term "death tax" for the estate levy in his statement, but made no direct mention of the minimum wage increase. This week, "the Senate will test whether or not there is enough support among its members to reform the unfair death tax," he said.

If the House sticks to its schedule, it will have worked 84 days this year when votes were scheduled, 26 fewer than the Congress that President Harry S. Truman labeled "do-nothing" during his come-from-behind 1948 campaign. Indeed, in 31 of the past 40 sessions of Congress, the House met more days before the July 4 break than the current House is scheduled to meet before the November election, Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said.

The year started with the guilty plea of former Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff and vows from congressional leaders to rein in lobbyists' influence by spring. Two deadlines have passed, and House-Senate negotiators appear unable to complete a bill.

The House passed immigration legislation in December, promising to get a bill to Bush's desk that would seal the borders and crack down on undocumented workers. The Senate passed a much different bill this year, and formal negotiations between the two chambers have not begun. All legislation dies when this Congress adjourns.

An Arab-government-owned company's purchase of operations at six major U.S. ports produced a political firestorm in February, but promised port security bills have yet to reach the president. House and Senate negotiators did not even try to reconcile their differences on a budget blueprint governing spending levels and tax policy.

Nor, so far, has Congress taken up the Supreme Court's invitation to pass legislation creating military tribunals to try terrorism suspects, a step necessary to make such tribunals constitutional.

"The do-nothing Congress got that moniker not for the days it met but for the lack of work it did," Hoyer said. "If this Republican Congress addressed health-care issues, the minimum wage, lobbying reform and energy independence, and did it all in 10 days, the American people would say, 'That's great.' But they're not doing anything."