By the time the bill was approved by the Senate, it included provisions that helped the mineral ore industry, large investors, hearse owners, and Scotch whisky importers.
Chairman Long also was able to include a one-dollar income tax check off to assist presidential campaigns, a proposal he had championed for a number of years.
Another controversial issue amended to the bill was a tax break for doctors, lawyers, and other high-paid professionals who wanted to set aside money for their retirements.
House Ways and Means Committee chairman, Wilbur Mills of Arkansas, insisted that tax bills be debated under closed rules to keep them from being amended on the floor.
Continuing resolutions, the emergency spending bills enacted to keep the government operating without a budget, became a favored target.
The bill started out as an ordinary piece of legislation to provide emergency highway money for states suffering flood damage.
The 1995 District of Columbia budget bill was stalled in Congress for several months threatening to shut down city services.
These amendments would have created an African American museum on the Mall in Washington, earmarked money to Haiti, and dealt with health care fraud.