Things are moving quickly in Congress this week as repeated, desperate attempts to pass a drastic reduction in the estate tax before the end of the year continue to unfold. After failing to attach a permanent cut to the tax to the pensions conference report, House and Senate GOP leaders (lead mostly by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and top House tax writer Bill Thomas (R-CA)) are moving forward with plans to remove a set of non-controversial tax cut "extenders" from the pension bill in order to combine them with an estate tax cut. Having been unable to bring the estate tax issue before the Senate on its own merits, legislators are now resorting to manipulating Congress - trying to use long-agreed upon bills to entice out the remaining votes needed. House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) announced today that the House will hold a vote later this week on the combined tax package of extensions of the expiring provisions (the "extenders" bill) and a modified estate tax reform before they recess until after Labor Day. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has already spoken out against including anything related to the estate tax in the non-controversial extenders bill and other members of both the House and the Senate are apprehensive of the proposal to remove those non-controversial tax cuts from the pensions conference report in the first place. New details become available often and we will post any updates or new information, so check back to the Budget Blog often. For more information: Bloomberg News coverage