WASHINGTON (AP) -- Despite a controversial item on organ transplants, the House easily passed a bill extending expiring tax breaks and ensuring disabled people can work without losing health benefits.
The vote Thursday to send the bill to the Senate was 418-2, but not before several lawmakers denounced a provision blocking Clinton administration rules aimed at directing organs to the people most in need, regardless of where they live."I believe that provision will jeopardize the health of critically ill patients," said Rep. Ben Cardin, D-Md.
The provision also drew strong protests from the White House, but officials stopped short of threatening a presidential veto.
"I personally think it's outrageous that there's any change in policy," said Jack Lew, the president's budget director.
Combining the organ transplant issue with the popular tax "extenders" bill and the bipartisan disabled workers measure virtually ensures the overall package will become law. A Senate vote could come today.
"I think there's more good than bad," said Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.
Among other things, the "Ticket to Work" bill would authorize $23 billion a year in Social Security Administration grants to states for programs helping the disabled find work, permit states to expand Medicaid coverage for those workers and more than double the length of time they can continue receiving Medicare while working. Poorer disabled people receive Medicaid coverage, while those with higher incomes are covered by Medicare.
"No one should have to choose health care over employment," said the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. William Roth, R-Del.
The tax measure, costing $18.3 billion over five years, would renew the business research and development credit for five years, a top priority for high-tech companies being wooed by Republicans and Democrats.
The bill also would:
Ensure for another three years that individuals who claim numerous personal credits on their income tax returns do not fall subject to the alternative minimum tax, which often means a tax increase for middle-class people.
Extend through 2001 credits for businesses that employ former welfare recipients and people from certain disadvantaged and ethnic groups.
Renew through 2001 credits for electricity generated by wind and agricultural byproducts, adding chicken manure to that list. The latter was a top priority for Roth, whose home state of Delaware is a major poultry producer.
Raise from $10.50 a gallon to $13.25 a gallon the amount of rum taxes paid in the United States that are transferred to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Two New York Democrats, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Rep. Charles Rangel, fought to include that provision, important to New York's estimated 1.5 million Puerto Ricans.
Extend through 2001 an exemption for certain foreign financing income, a school construction bond program, a tax exclusion for undergraduate education expenses provided by employers and a deduction for costs of cleaning up contaminated "brownfields" sites.
All but $2.8 billion of the tax measure's 10-year cost will come from projected income tax surpluses, a concession made by the White House at the insistence of Republicans who refused to raise other taxes to pay for it.
Rep. Bill Archer, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said the GOP almost certainly would return next year with another massive tax cut proposal, perhaps in concert with Texas Gov. George W. Bush, Sen. John McCain of Arizona or whoever wins the 2000 Republican presidential nomination.
"What (the nominee) believes is the appropriate thing to do will have quite an impact on our party and what we do," said Archer, R-Texas. "My guess is, there will be another battle royal with President Clinton on taxes."