H.R. 5 - Amendment to Title II of the Social Security Act to Eliminate the Earnings Test for Individuals who reach Retirement Age
This legislation enables Americans age 65-69 to earn as much outside income without losing their Social Security benefits. This bill passed the House on a 419-0 vote and the Senate on 100-0 vote. It repeals a Depression-era law that would have reduced Social Security payments by $1 for every $3 over $17,000.00 that a Senior earns annually in wages. This measure would affect over 800,000 people including 415,000 due refunds averaging $3,500 each because of deductions made since the beginning of this year from their Social Security. According to the Associated Press, this historic legislation has a price tag of $35 million and the President has asked Congress to approve that amount for administrative costs and expected additional claims. This price tag is not expected to adversely affect the Social Security trust fund long term.

S. 1134 – Affordable Education Act
Sponsored by Sen. Williams Roth, Jr., this bill passed the Senate on a 61-37 vote. It amends the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow tax-free expenditures from education individual retirement accounts for elementary and secondary school expenses, to increase the maximum annual amount of contributions to such accounts, and for other purposes. It provides education savings incentives by permitting eligible institutions to maintain qualified tuition programs; extends the termination date for the exclusion of employer provided education assistance provisions, eliminates the 60 month limit on the student loan interest deduction, increases the amount by which certain governmental bonds used to finance public school capital expenditures may be exempted from arbitrage bond provisions, modifies the foreign tax credit carry back and carryover periods and limits the use of the non-accrual experience method of accounting under provisions relating to special rules for services among others.

H.R. 7 – The Education Savings and School Excellence Act
This bill expands current education IRA limits from $500 to $2000 per annum. The Education savings accounts allows parents, grandparents, mentors, corporations and churches to contribute to a child’s educational expenses for grades K-12 at public, private, religious, and home schools. As of the date of publication, this bill was still under consideration in the House. 2001 Budget Plan The $1.8 trillion budget and tax cut plan was approved by a slim margin on 211-207 vote, on March 24, 2000, with only two (2) democrats voting for it. The measure allows for a modest increase in government spending over the next five (5) years, extra money for defense, education and a new prescription drug benefit for Medicare recipients. It contains about $50 billion more in tax cuts than the President wants and less domestic spending. The budget sets aside about $240 billion for tax cuts over five (5) years. On 4.7.00, a divided Senate also passed the $1.8 Trillion budget by a vote of 51-45.

H.R. 3660 – Partial Birth Abortion Ban
In a victory for pro-life advocates, the House in a 287-141 vote passed the partial birth abortion ban. This margin is sufficient to override a veto by the President.

Stenberg v. Carhart (No. 99-830)
As of the date of this publication, the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing arguments on the constitutionality of the Nebraskan law on Partial Birth Abortion ban. Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeal (8th circuit) held that the said law was broad enough to encompass the dilation and evacuation procedure, thus placing an undue burden on the right to abortion.