WASHINGTON — A $240 billion tax cut bill that would allow bigger contributions to retirement accounts and provide incentives to spur business investment in poor communities is dead for the year, a top Republican in the House of Representatives said Thursday.

"I think it's dead for the year," said House Majority Leader Dick Armey after a meeting of Senate and House Republican leaders.

The bill passed the House, but languished in the U.S. Senate, where some conservative Republicans held out hope of getting a broader tax cut bill next year should Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush prevail in the legal wrangling over Florida's crucial vote count and become president in January.

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Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, was pushing for passage of the tax cut bill because of the package of incentives to boost business investment and housing development in poor communities. But Republican Conference Chairman J.C. Watts of Oklahoma said it appeared unlikely that part of the bill would pass separately and that it would be up to the new Congress that takes office in January to deal with tax cuts.

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