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Friday, July 28, 2006
Pension Conference Meeting Gets Nasty
The question of whether the Senate will return to consider the estate tax again this year is intimately connected to the fate of the pension conference report.
It appears meeting of the pension conference committee last night was tense and saw lawmakers expressing their frustrations with the current situation. According to media reports, a number of members present were quite forthright in their unhappiness about the House boycott of the meeting and recent events.
Senators Enzi and Kennedy expressed disappointment that House leaders failed to show up and Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY) wondered, "How in the devil is this small group of people so powerful that they can hold hostage legislation that affects millions of working families?" Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) and Rep. Robert Andrews (D-NJ) stated the only reason the pension conference has broken down is because of the GOP's efforts to reduce the estate tax.
But by far the most forthright comments came from Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA):
I don’t know why you wouldn’t have guts enough to come forward and cast a vote [and be very transparent]. Nobody’s going to lose any blood by coming over here and being a man or a woman.
He also added:
I don’t know what’s up, but I’m a bit shocked that others who were parties to the agreement and who accepted the benefits of the agreement and [were] the beneficiaries of my credibility are so reluctant to live up to it. I’ve kept my word and I will still keep my word even if I am knifed in the back.
It may be difficult for the conferees to repair the damage with only one day left before the House adjourns for the August recess.
Posted by Adam Hughes
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