Senate Debates Gas, Taxes In Rush to Adjournment

Proponents of the natural gas price control compromise may have enough votes to approve this key portion of the administration's energy program in a Senate vote scheduled for Tuesday.

Senate majority leader Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) said Saturday that the fight to pass the compromise is "virtually over the top." A "conservative" count lists 49 votes in favor of the bill, 37 opposed and 14 "question marks," Byrd said.

An Associated Press poll reported that 48 Senators were in favor of the bill, 39 against it, and 13 undecided.

Gas Pains

The natural gas compromise would end controls on the price of newly-discovered natural gas by 1985. The proposal has been delayed by ten months of House-Senate negotiations.

Opponents of the bill, among them Sen. Edward Kennedy '54 (D-Mass.), say the measure will increase natural gas prices without measurably increasing supplies. The bill's supporters contend that deregulation of gas prices will encourage producers to develop new sources of gas and consumers to cut back on usage. The fight over the bill has snagged passage of the administration's energy package.

While Congress is rushing to finish up before adjourning for the campaign, the Senate Finance Committee is continuing work on the final version of a tax cut bill. The House version of the tax cut proposal, which would reduce taxes by $16.3 billion, is being enlarged and reworked by the Senate committee in order to provide more relief to lower income families. A final draft of the tax cut bill will have to be worked out in a House-Senate conference.

Little Chance

The sponsors of a proposal to cut taxes by one-third across the board over the next three years have conceded that their bill has little chance of becoming part of the final pian.

"It's going to be very difficult to win tomorrow," Sen. William Roth (R-Del.), co-sponsor of the proposal with Rep. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.), said yesterday, but he added he would carry the fight to the Senate floor if his proposal failed in committee.

Kemp said yesterday "the battleground would shift (if the measure failed) from the Congress to the general elections...the issue will not be laid to rest.