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Balanced Budget Amendment, Tax Relief, Crime Control Among Top Goals For Senate Republicans

Washington, D.C. -- A comprehensive package of bills and one constitutional amendment were introduced in the U.S. Senate this week aimed as early legislative goals for Senate Republicans and to set the agenda for the 105th Congress, U.S. Senator Craig Thomas said Tuesday.

Among them: a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution, pro-family tax credits and estate tax relief, and new proposals to fight crime and drug trafficking.

The package, Thomas said, represents a broad agenda that will address popular and pressing issues in the country. "This is a blueprint that will help focus our efforts on issues many of us agree upon -- protecting our families and neighborhoods from crime and drugs, tax reform and constitutional discipline to balance the federal budget," he said.

Thomas added that a new Congressional session and a new year means much of the legislation will see action soon.

"We have a unique window of opportunity right now," Thomas said. "Although the President opposes the Balanced Budget Amendment, he did campaign on some of these initiatives, like targeted tax relief, and has signaled a willingness to work on several others to get them passed."

Additional goals are crime and illegal drug legislation, product liability reform, and a ban on partial birth abortion.

The very first measure introduced was S.J. 1, a Balanced Budget Constitutional Amendment. The amendment fell one vote short in the Senate last Congress. Thomas said if Senators who have indicated past support vote for the amendment, it will pass by one vote more than the 2/3 required of a constitutional change.

"Right now we have the votes to pass the same type of constitutional discipline to control spending we have in Wyoming," Thomas said. "Whether the President's lobbying efforts against it will sway any of those votes is the only question."

The amendment is then subject to approval by 3/4 of the states, Thomas said.

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