Congressman Zach Wamp said Friday that small businesspeople and farmers were the winners when the U.S. House passed a bill eliminating the death tax.

"I voted to repeal this grossly unfair tax because I heard the voices of East Tennessee farmers and small business owners who say they don't want their children to be forced to sell the family property to pay the grimmest of all reapers - the federal tax man," Wamp said.

The bill to phase-out the death tax, also called the estate tax, by the year 2010 passed the House by on a bipartisan 279 to 136 vote. It must also be approved by the Senate.

 "The death tax makes absolutely no sense because it devastates the families of small business and farm owners at exactly the time they can least handle it - when they have just lost a parent or loved one," Wamp said. "The tax, which can take up to 55 percent of a person's estate very often forces his or her survivors to sell the family farm or business just to pay the tax man. The National Federation of Independent Business says that more than 70 percent of small businesses do not survive into the second generation. That's unfair, and it's simply not sound policy, especially since this out-dated tax contributes only about one percent of overall federal revenues.

 "It's high time that we give the death penalty to the death tax," Wamp said.