Details are emerging regarding the AMT reform package gestating in Rep. Richard Neal's (D-MA) House Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee and to be announced in June by Ways and Means chair Charles Rangle (D-NY). The draft package is said to include tax benefits aimed at low-income people: increasing the standard income-tax deduction, expanding the reach of the refundable child tax credit and making the earned income tax credit available to more people without children. As these details emerge, two questions arise: "Is it Bipartisan?" and, maybe prior to that: "Is it Bicameral?" Comments yesterday by senior Senate Democrats suggest answers to both questions. Yesterday, Senate Finance Committee chair Max Baucus (D-MT), told the National Press Club that he sees little "possibility of enactment this year of sweeping tax reform legislation beyond a one-year [hold harmless] 'patch'" for the AMT. BNA reported today: Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) reacted coolly May 8 to the House Democrats' plan to permanently fix the alternative minimum tax... When asked about the House plan being drafted by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel and expected on the floor in June, Conrad said, "I'm not wild about it"... Conrad said the fiscal year 2008 budget resolution likely would accommodate a one-year patch. "I think that's probably the most realistic thing at this point." Baucus' standard of reform appears to be low: "AMT [reform] is an imminent imperative... It has to be dealt with now," then going on to add that he is currently looking at a "one-year patch."