WASHINGTON

REPUBLICAN SENATORS TO PUSH FOR ESTATE-TAX REPEAL

Senate Republicans will push for a vote this week on permanently repealing the estate tax even though the GOP appears to lack enough support to get past Democrats’ objections. The tax has fallen as a result of gradually escalating exemptions and decreasing rates since President Bush’s tax cut in 2001.

In 2010, the tax will disappear. But without action by Congress, it will return with a vengeance in 2011, when the top tax rate on estates reverts to 55% and the exemption shrinks to $675,000.

This year, the top rate is 47% and the first $1.5 million left to heirs is not taxed at all. A small group of Republicans and Democrats has worked for months on a compromise that would limit the tax, called the “death tax” by its critics, to only the wealthiest families.

Farming, ranching, and business organizations that want the tax removed are keeping close watch. They want Senate GOP leaders to gauge support for repealing the tax permanently before moving ahead with any compromise.

“We believe it would be a serious mistake, and exceptionally difficult to again explain to small business, if a compromise is advanced without first giving the small business community the opportunity to actively put their resources to the task of delivering the votes for full repeal,” a coalition of groups wrote Senate Majority Leader Frist, a Republican of Tennessee.

Lobbyists and lawmakers acknowledge they are several votes short of the 60 needed in the Senate to clear potential Democratic obstacles to a permanent repeal. The House passed a bill in April that would abolish the tax.

– Associated Press

SOUTHEAST

NASA PLANS TO LAUNCH SPACE SHUTTLE TOMORROW CAPE

CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA plans to launch the first space shuttle flight in two and a half years, even if it is plagued by the same fuel gauge problem that halted the previous countdown two weeks ago, officials said Sunday.

Discovery is set to lift off Tuesday at 10:39 a.m., the same time Columbia took off on its doomed mission in 2003.

The deputy shuttle program manager, Wayne Hale, said the fuel gauge problem has been a vexing one – engineers still don’t know exactly what caused it – and he’s repeatedly asked himself, “Are we taking care enough to do it right?”

“Based on the last 10 days’ worth of effort, the huge number of people, and the tremendous number of hours that have been spent in testing and analysis, I think that we’re coming to the right place,” he said.

At an evening news conference, Mr. Hale and other NASA officials found themselves defending the decision to launch with a fuel gauge failure. They stressed that they will proceed with a liftoff only if the problem is well understood and involves the gauges in question – anything else will result in a postponement.

NASA’s own launch rule – in place since the 1986 Challenger disaster – requires that all four hydrogen fuel gauges in the external tank be working properly. Going with three out of four would result in a “deviation” of the rule, Hale told reporters. “I am committed – and I think the whole team is committed – to doing this in a safe manner,” Mr. Hale said. “I think we’re all still struggling a little bit with the ghost of Columbia, and therefore we want to make sure we do it right.”

– Associated Press