Estate Tax Sunset Provision -- Changing after all?

Well, here's another news story about something that came up in Gov class this week, specifically, the Estate (inheritance) tax. The House voted to freeze the rates at this year's level, not letting it go to zero next year before resetting to the levels before the Bush tax cuts went into effect for 2011. I don't know the prospects for Senate action on this, so as it stands the estate tax will disappear for one year only starting January first and then come back at a higher level than it has been for several years. If you have a terminally ill wealthy benefactor, encourage him or her to hold on tight for the rest of the month... and then pass gently sometime during 2010. (If the Senate passes this and Obama signs it, the timing will be irrelevant because the rates will be fixed with no sunset.)