Tax credits related to higher education are stuck in limbo as the U.S. Congress packs up and leaves Washington today for a monthlong recess. The extension of tax breaks for tuition and for research and development were affixed to a bill that would have raised the threshold for the estate tax and also increased the federal minimum wage. Congressional Republicans added the popular higher-education credits and the minimum-wage hike to the bill to pressure Senate Democrats to support it (The Chronicle, July 30). But the maneuver failed late Thursday, as supporters of the bill fell four votes short of the “supermajority” of 60 needed to end debate, The New York Times reported. (The tally was 56 to 42.)

Sen. Charles E. Grassley, an Iowa Republican and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has been a vocal supporter of the tuition deduction. Although he voted for the bill, he said, in a written statement, that it was a “riverboat gamble” to attach the tax credits to the more-controversial measure on the estate tax and minimum wage.