106TH CONGRESS' FINALE

JOANNA RAMEY

WASHINGTON -- After an August recess, Congress returns to work this week to a politically charged agenda with a vote to override President Clinton's veto of legislation repealing the estate tax scheduled Thursday in the GOP-controlled House.

This will come as time runs out on the 106th Congress, which is scheduled to adjourn by the end of September.

Clinton vetoed the estate tax repeal legislation last week. Estate-tax repeal has been a long-time goal of the supermarket industry, but the likelihood of repeal coming during this presidential election year remains in doubt.

The House could muster the two-thirds majority needed to override the veto, given the strong 279 to 136 vote on initial passage that included 65 Democrats. However, the original 59-to-39 margin in the Senate, even with nine Democrats on board, fell short of the critical mass needed to buck the President.

Pressure on congressional Democrats to stand behind the President and Democrat presidential candidate Al Gore also stands in the way of thwarting an override.

Gore, like Clinton, favors increasing the level at which that tax starts in general, and raising the threshold yet higher on family-owned businesses and farms.

Repeal opponents argue total repeal benefits the wealthiest 2% of the population, and its estimated $105 billion cost could threaten funding for social programs. Gore has called for increasing the exemption level to $5 million from the current $675,000.

Repeal backers argue the estate tax amounts to double taxation. They say raising the exemption level won't touch many family businesses, like supermarket companies, which often undertake costly estate planning to minimize their estate-tax penalties.

"Plans to increase the family-business exemption are worthless. Our experience with the exemption enacted in 1997 shows that very few businesses qualify because the criteria are far too narrow and complex," said Timothy M. Hammonds, president and CEO of the Food Marketing Institute, here, who is also co-chairman of the Americans Against Unfair Family Taxation, which is lobbying for repeal.

Repeal of the estate tax, as well as the so-called marriage-penalty tax, has become a basic part of their campaign for congressional Republicans, as well as GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush. President Clinton also vetoed legislation repealing the marriage penalty.

Also caught up in election-year politicking, and on lawmakers' agendas this month, is a proposal to increase by $1 an hour the $5.15 federal minimum wage. Republicans have all but conceded this issue to Democrats, despite opposition to an increase from most businesses, including supermarkets. The battle is now over whether the wage should be increased over two years or three.

Another supermarket-industry quest on Capitol Hill is to delay by a year pending regulations for new workplace standards to prevent repetitive-motion injuries. Implementation of ergonomics regulations is a priority of the Clinton administration, and the GOP majority in Congress wants to quash them, arguing current Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations cover such injuries.

A one-year delay of the ergonomics standard is contained in a Labor Department funding bill, which Clinton has said he would veto because of the provision.

Also on deck is a health care reform bill. This measure, too, is caught up in election-year politicking. Legislation has passed both chambers and a conference committee is reconciling differences between the bills. The supermarket industry and other businesses are pressing for the bill to exclude a provision that would make employers liable in cases where employees sue health care providers.