ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, April 16, 1997              TAG: 9704160071
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-7  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS

HOUSE REJECTS TAX AMENDMENT MEASURE WOULD LIMIT CONGRESS' POWER TO TAX

With 233 votes for and 190 against, the amendment - short of the two-thirds majority required to pass - failed by a wider margin than it did last year.

By a decisive margin, the House rejected a proposed Constitutional amendment that would make it harder for Congress to raise taxes.

The amendment, which would require a two-thirds vote of Congress for any tax increases, mustered 233 votes in favor to 190 against. That was 49 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to advance a change to the Constitution.

It was the second year the House turned down the bill on the tax filing deadline day. Last year it fell only 37 votes short.

The GOP used the long floor debate to emphasize its tax-changing agenda and its differences with the White House.

Defeat of the tax limitation amendment came after the House and Senate overwhelmingly passed measures making it a crime for IRS workers to snoop through tax returns.

The Senate voted 97-0 to pass a bill to impose a maximum one year in jail and a $100,000 fine on Internal Revenue Service workers who browse confidential taxpayer records without authorization.

The House approved a similar bill by a 412-0 margin.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said they intend to focus on three major tax issues this year: reducing capital gains and estate taxes and passing a $500 per child tax credit for families.

Lott said that ``at the very minimum'' he wants the capital gains rate cut to 19.8 percent from the current 28 percent. ``We will never rest until that goal is achieved,'' he said.

LENGTH: Short :   43 lines