While concerns of a new terrorist strike were fueled by yesterday’s passenger jet crash in New York City, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says there’s -no- sign of it being anything but a mechanical problem at fault. Grassley says the latest fatal crash was a very unfortunate accident.Grassley hopes people in Iowa and elsewhere go ahead with including air travel as part of their plans for the holidays.Grassley could not predict how soon before Congress would pass its airport security bill. It may federalize airport security staff in addition to okaying the use of more sky marshals and mandating new anti-terrorist measures like secure cockpit doors.When state legislators met last week, they put plans in place for a National Sales Tax Holiday, if it should get Congressional approval. Senator Grassley says he hasn’t given that proposal much thought, as another tentative plan was to give tax rebate checks to low-income Americans, costing 14-billion dollars. Grassley says Congress will have to choose between that plan and the Sales Tax Holiday proposal, weighing several factors.The proposal is to have a ten-day period sometime between now and the end of year where no state would charge sales taxes on what’s loosely defined as “personal property.” State officials estimate it would save Iowans up to 60-million dollars, money the feds promise to pay the state so there wouldn’t be a new hole in the state budget.
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