WASHINGTON - House and Senate tax negotiators on Friday said they were close to a final deal on a $1.35 trillion tax package that President Bush hopes to sign quickly into law.
Negotiators talked through the night on Thursday and met again on Friday in hopes of settling differences on remaining issues concerning across-the-board income tax rate cuts and on the refundability of a child tax credit that will gradually double under the legislation.
Sen. Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat who helped forge the Senate package along with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said the House and Senate were moving "closer" to final agreement.
"We're making a lot of progress," Baucus told reporters after a long meeting with other House and Senate negotiators. "In my judgement we will have an agreement by a reasonable hour."
Grassley told reporters "we're making good progress."
The House of Representatives and the Senate began to confer on the 11-year package after the Senate on Wednesday passed its version of the bill, which cuts tax rates across the board, bringing the top 39.6 percent rate to 36 percent, and provides a break to taxpayers this year.
The House-approved version of the tax bill follows the lines of Bush's original $1.6 trillion plan, which lowers the top rate to 33 percent. But moderate Senate Republicans and Democrats say that is too deep a cut at the top and urged Senate negotiators to stick to the Senate bill.
Sen. Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican who has championed the issue of making the child tax credit partially refundable, said she and other Senate moderates were insisting the measure be part of the final package.
"This is not the time to be sticking a thumb in the eye of moderates," Snowe spokesman Dave Lackey said referring to the defection of moderate Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont from the
Sen. Don Nickles, an Oklahoma Republican who is part of the House-Senate conference, said the concerns of moderates were being taken into account.
"If you look at the composition of this tax bill you can tell that moderates have had very significant input -- one in its size and two in its composition," Nickles, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, told reporters.
The tax package is a major priority for Bush, who suffered a massive setback this week when Jeffords announced he was dropping out of the Republican Party to become an independent, a move that allows the Democrats to take control for the first time in seven years.
In announcing his decision on Thursday, Jeffords promised to stick with the Republicans until the tax bill landed on the president's desk.
Bush and congressional Republican leaders want lawmakers to work through the weekend if necessary to finish the tax bill. Congress was scheduled to start a week-long break for the Memorial Day holiday after completing business this week.
If negotiators strike a final deal, Republicans leaders want the House and the Senate to vote on it this weekend in order to get it to Bush by the Memorial Day holiday on Monday.
