Breach in the Line

THE CONGRESS Breach in the Line

Gathering forces for a surprise attack on the Administration's stand-pat tax bill last week, Florida's handsome Senator George Smathers found plenty of allies from the South and West. A top Capitol Hill specialist in transportation affairs, Smathers wanted to kill off the $700 million-a-year federal transportation taxes--3% on freight, 10% on passenger tickets, 4 1/2% on pipelined oil, 4-c- a ton on coal shipments. And the South and West had long been grumbling that the freight tax discriminates unfairly against states far removed from the big-city markets and industrial centers.

With bipartisan support behind him, Smathers last week breached the Administration's previously undentable no-tax-cut line. By sturdy majorities, the Senate nailed the Smathers amendments to the House-passed Administration bill to extend for another year, at present rates, the corporation and excise taxes scheduled to shrink on July 1. But that was all the tax trimming the Senate did. It voted down a flurry of tax-cut proposals, passed the Smathers-nicked Administration bill with nary an audible nay. Ahead this week: a House-Senate conference to decide whether the House, which approved a hold-the-line bill with no exceptions, will stand still for the Smathers amendments.

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