By MARY DALRYMPLE
The Associated Press
Wednesday, September 21, 2005; 2:20 PM
WASHINGTON -- The House approved a $6.1 billion package of tax breaks Wednesday to help families recover from Hurricane Katrina and encourage Gulf Coast businesses to reopen their doors, or at least keep employees on the payroll.
The House passed the bill 422-0 as the Bush administration urged residents to get out of the way of another approaching storm, Hurricane Rita, threatening Louisiana and Texas.
The vote sent the bill to the Senate, where lawmakers hoped to quickly give their final approval. The package offers tax assistance to people and businesses dislocated by Hurricane Katrina and expanded tax breaks for some charitable donations to help them.
Rep. Jim McCrery, R-La., said tax writers aimed most of their assistance at individuals, and tax breaks for businesses mean "those businesses, we hope, will be employing and paying residents of the affected area."
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/21/AR2005092101485.html