Congress did not take up the capital gains issue again this fall. Congress voted to phase out estate taxes in the vetoed H.R. 2488 and has included language reducing estate taxes in both minimum wage bills. GOP Presidential candidate Governor George Bush has included elimination of the estate tax in his tax cut proposal. Lawmakers are expected to work out a compromise bill when they return in 2000. The health insurance deductibility provision also is in the pending legislation to increase the minimum wage.
Hearings are likely next year.
The House and Senate have passed electronic-signature bills and will work out differences between the two bills in 2000. Congressional action on encryption legislation, which would lift most export controls on the technology used to scramble telephone calls and on-line communications, is on hold until the Clinton Administration's new policy on encryption technology is released. The scheduled release date is December 15, 1999. Internet taxation remains a thorny issue for Congress. While the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce is due to submit its report to Congress in April 2000, Commission Chairman James Gilmore said in a speech at the end of November that the Commission is unlikely to reach a consensus.