Letter to Majority Leader William F. Frist - Send Death Tax to Grave

Letter

In an ongoing effort to ensure that people are not taxed when they are living and again when they are dead, U.S. Senators Craig Thomas and Mike Enzi, both R-Wyo., urged Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., to revive a vote on a permanent repeal of the death tax.

In a letter to Majority Leader Frist, Thomas and Enzi and 25 of their Senate colleagues, urged him to schedule a vote on the death tax before the Senate's Memorial Day recess, May 26.

A copy of the letter follows.

The Honorable William F. Frist, M. D.
Majority Leader
United States Capitol
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Frist:

We understood and strongly supported your decision to postpone the vote on the repeal of the Death Tax to deal directly with the impact of Hurricane Katrina. However, we also congratulate and endorse your most recent statement at the National Farm Bureau Federation meeting endorsing a vote "sooner than later."

As your Wall Street Journal article last year put it, "We can put to rest the financial insecurity and uncertainty that haunts too many American families and businesses. And we can remove a major government roadblock that stands between people who work hard their entire lives and their desire to pass on a piece of the American dream to their children."

The American people stand with you on this and we wish to add our voice to encourage a vote. We pledge to work with you, the President and Vice President, the hundreds of organizations and the majority of Americans supporting repeal. Together we will be successful.

Although we would gladly accept the earliest opportunity to end the Death Tax, we humbly suggest scheduling a vote before the Memorial Day recess.

Thank you for your continued and steadfast leadership on this issue. We deeply appreciate your commitment to reschedule the vote.

Sincerely,

Senator Jeff Sessions
Senator Larry E. Craig
Senator James M. Inhofe
Senator John E. Sununu
Senator David Vitter
Senator Chuck Hagel
Senator Orrin G. Hatch
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
Senator Johnny Isakson
Senator John Ensign
Senator Michael B. Enzi
Senator John Thune
Senator James M. Talent
Senator Pat Roberts
Senator John Cornyn
Senator Jim Bunning
Senator Mike Crapo
Senator Wayne Allard
Senator Conrad Burns
Senator Mel Martinez
Senator Richard C. Shelby
Senator Sam Brownback
Senator Christopher S. Bond
Senator Saxby Chambliss
Senator Craig Thomas
Senator Jim DeMint
Senator Richard Burr