- 8 -
430, 438 n.5 (1988), affd. 867 F.2d 749 (2d Cir. 1989).6 We also
find that the executrix is mistaken in her reliance on the
legislative history of section 2701, which was added to the
Internal Revenue Code by section 11602(a) of the Omnibus Budget
Reconciliation Act of 1990, Pub. L. 101-508, 104 Stat. 1388,
1388-491. As observed by the U.S. Supreme Court: "the views of
one Congress as to the construction of a statute adopted many
years before by another Congress have very little, if any,
significance." United States v. Southwestern Cable Co., 392 U.S.
157, 170 (1968) (quoting Rainwater v. United States, 356 U.S.
590, 593 (1958)).
In Gradow v. United States, supra, the U.S. Claims Court
applied section 2036(a) to a case with facts similar to those of
the case at hand. In the Gradow case, the surviving spouse could
elect under her husband's will to: (1) Receive her one-half
share of the couple's community property outright or (2) transfer
her one-half interest to a trust that would hold all of the
couple's community property, pay her all of the trust income
during her life, and distribute the trust corpus to her son upon
her death. She made the latter choice and, following her death,
her executor included none of the trust assets in her gross
estate. According to the executor, the estate included none of
6 Nor are we bound by the opinions of commentators on which
the executrix relies.
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