Key House Republicans boycott pension meeting [View All]

Full story: http://money.excite.com/ht/nw/bus/20060728/hle_bus-n27175437.html



Friday July 28, 1:09 AM EDT

By Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Legislation to overhaul the U.S. private pension system suffered another setback on Thursday as key House Republican lawmakers boycotted a negotiating meeting in a fight over whether to keep some $35 billion in tax breaks in the bill.

A furious Sen. Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa, denounced the no-shows from the House as "scaredy-cats." But the chairman of the House of Representatives and Senate pension negotiating team, Wyoming Republican Sen. Mike Enzi, said he intended to keep talking to all the negotiators to seek a deal on the bill.

"I was just wondering why you wouldn't have guts enough to come forth and cast a vote," Grassley fumed as he looked around a half-empty conference table in a Senate office building.

Progress on the bill to overhaul the troubled traditional pension system was delayed earlier this week when Grassley and other senators rebelled against plans by Republican leaders in both the House and Senate to strip the bill of popular tax breaks for businesses, education and research.

The array of tax breaks includes deductions for certain tuition costs, state and local sales taxes in areas where there is no state income tax, and tax credits for companies' research and development costs.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist want to take these popular tax cuts and pair them with a more contentious Republican plan to cut the estate tax. The estate tax cut has failed repeatedly to pass the Senate.