Senate just voted against increasing the child tax credit – Seven months after the House passed a bill to expand the child tax credit, the Senate has rejected it.
On Thursday, the long-awaited conclusion to a debate that was supposed to be resolved by Tax Day finally came. Legislators voted down a bipartisan bill that aimed to increase the tax credit amount through the end of 2025 and extend more benefits to the country’s poorest families. The vote was close, at 48-44, mainly divided along party lines, but the bill needed 60 votes to pass.
Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, and Representative Jason T. Smith, a Republican from Missouri, worked together at the beginning of the year to create a deal. It passed in the House with a vote of 357-70, with hopes of getting it through before tax season. However, Republican objections in the Senate Finance Committee caused delays.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for a vote
This week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for a vote, partly to get Republicans to publicly state their position before the November election. Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, gave out pamphlets to his colleagues saying that voting for the bill would help Kamala Harris before the election. He even made fake checks for “millions of American voters” with the memo: “Don’t forget to vote for Kamala!”
Democrats were especially watching how Ohio Senator JD Vance, the GOP vice presidential candidate, would vote, but he was in Arizona visiting the U.S.-Mexico border and missed the vote. Earlier this year, he supported the bill, calling it “good policy,” though he acknowledged some reasonable Republican objections.
Vance had earlier made a false claim that Vice President Kamala Harris wanted to end the child tax credit, although she actually supports expanding it. She backed making permanent the changes from 2021, which temporarily increased the credit to up to $3,600 per child, but Congress rejected that proposal.
Vance faced criticism for his 2021 comments calling Harris and other Democratic leaders “childless cat ladies” who have no “direct stake” in the nation’s future. He later told Megyn Kelly that his remarks were aimed at the Democratic party, not at childless people.
Schumer criticized Senate Republicans for claiming to support families and businesses
On Thursday, Schumer criticized Senate Republicans for claiming to support families and businesses while opposing the child tax credit expansion. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell argued that the bill needed serious revisions to get the necessary 60 votes.
Senator Mike Crapo, a Republican from Idaho and a key figure in the discussions, said there hadn’t been any real outreach or engagement on the child tax credit for months. He acknowledged that the bill had some good points but criticized it for not providing meaningful tax relief to working families and turning the child tax credit into a subsidy without work requirements.
Wyden countered that he had offered to make changes and met with many Senate Republicans, accusing them of stalling until the next election.
The bill on the table was more moderate than the $3,600-per-child credit available in 2021. It proposed increasing the amount low-income families could receive from $1,600 to $2,000 per child, matching what higher-income families receive. It also aimed to remove a limit on how much low-income families could receive and index the credit to inflation.
Despite bipartisan support for the child tax credit, Senate Republicans wanted to remove a provision allowing people to use their prior year’s income to qualify for a larger credit, arguing it would discourage work. Some Democrats opposed the bill because it included corporate tax breaks and didn’t go far enough in supporting children. They preferred a version more like the 2021 expansion.
The vote mostly split along party lines, but a few senators crossed over. Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin, and Florida Senator Rick Scott voted in favor, while independents Bernie Sanders, Joe Manchin, and Kyrsten Sinema split their votes. In the end, Schumer changed his vote to “no” to allow for a motion to reconsider.
If passed, the bill would have benefited an estimated 16 million children, lifting 400,000 out of poverty. It would have particularly helped over one-third of all Black and Latinx kids under 17.
The push for a bigger child tax credit isn’t over. The issue is expected to come up again next year when the expansion from former President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax bill expires, forcing lawmakers to revisit it.