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Permanent repeal is a top priority of many construction industry groups who continue to lobby for its passage.

President Bush supports the House bill. In a statement of administration policy, the White House said that "eliminating the death tax is a matter of basic fairness." The administration asserts, "The permanent repeal of the death tax would mean that many more family businesses would be preserved and could thrive as a source of continuing job creation and economic growth."

In the 2001 omnibus tax-cut package, Congress voted to phase out the inheritance tax by 2010. But the levy would be reinstated in 2011. Last year the House voted to make the repeal permanent, but the measure failed to win Senate approval.

or the second time in two years, the House of Representatives has passed legislation that would make permanent a repeal of the estate tax. The measure was approved June 18 on a 264-163 vote. But the Senate isn't expected to approve the measure, and that would doom permanent repeal of the levy again.