August 5, 1999

Rules Committee Approves Conference Report Procedures for Historic $792 Billion Tax Relief Bill

WASHINGTON - The House Rules Committee last night approved the floor procedures for House consideration of H.R. 2488, the "Taxpayer Refund and Relief Act," a $792 billion tax relief bill which returns billions in projected tax overcharges and provides broad based tax relief to America's families and small businesses.

"Washington is overcharging the American people and draining energy from our vibrant economy," said Congressman David Dreier (R-CA), Chairman of the House Rules Committee. "Protecting Social Security and Medicare, improving education and shoring up our national defense all require continued strong economic growth. Returning tax overcharges to America's families, job creating businesses and communities will help ensure economic growth so that America's retirement, education and national security priorities can be met."

The Committee approved a rule that provides one hour of debate on the conference report in addition to one hour on the rule. Further procedural information on the rule is available at the Rules Committee web site at www.house.gov/rules/rulecr2488. Specifically, the legislation:

• reduces marginal income tax rates by 1% -- for example, the 15% rate would be reduced to 14% (a 7% tax reduction), and the 39.6% top rate would be reduced to 38.6% (a 4% tax reduction);
• reduces capital gains tax rates from 20% to 18% and 10% to 8% and indexes the rates to inflation;
• reduces the marriage penalty tax for 42 million American families by raising the standard deduction for married couples to twice that of individuals;
• gradually eliminates the gift and estate tax over 10 years;
• improves the affordability of health care and long-term care insurance by providing new deductions and exemptions with 100% above the line deductions for people paying more than 50% of their health insurance premiums, including the self-employed;
• extends certain targeted tax credits, such as the research and development tax credit, work opportunity and welfare-to-work credits;
• creates 20 urban and rural "renewal community" tax incentive areas to promote job creation and investment;
• increases contributions to Education IRAs from $500 to $2,000 and includes K-12 expenses; and,
• expands Roth IRA's by increasing conversion limit to $200,000 for joint filers, and raising contribution limits to all IRAs from $2,000 to $5,000.

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