Senate Democrats tee up vote on child tax credit in election-year pitch to families

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer is daring Republicans to vote against a bipartisan tax cut package aimed at expanding the child tax credit for millions of families and restoring some business tax breaks.

And Republicans appear prepared to do just that on Thursday, with many arguing they will have more leverage to enact the tax changes they want if their party wins control of the White House and both chambers of Congress in November’s election. Large parts of the tax cut package passed under Republican control in 2017 are set to expire after 2025, pushing tax issues to the forefront.

“I think we can do better next year,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

It’s expected to be the final vote senators will take before heading home for the August recess, and underscores how both parties are trying to spotlight issues they believe will play well with voters in November. Democrats are also looking to counter assertions from Donald Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, that Democrats are “anti-family.”

“The American people will get a chance to see which senators in reality support tax relief for parents and businesses and housing, and who opposes it,” Schumer said.

The roughly $79 billion package passed the House overwhelmingly in January, 357-70. But it has stalled in the Senate. The procedural vote to advance the measure will require support from 60 senators, which is unlikely.

The bill was fashioned through negotiations by Rep. Jason Smith, the Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and Sen. Ron Wyden, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. It would restore full, immediate deductions that businesses can take for the purchase of new equipment and machinery, and for domestic research and development expenses. It also would help more low-income families take fuller advantage of the child tax credit.

The changes in the child tax credit would lift as many as 500,000 out of poverty when the proposal is fully in effect, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. In all, the families of some 16 million children would benefit, the liberal think tank said.

The bill is paid for by speeding up the cut-off date by which companies could submit retroactive claims for employees they kept on the payrolls during the COVID pandemic. The IRS has said a significant majority of retroactive claims are at a high risk of fraud.

With the bill seemingly lacking the support necessary to overcome procedural hurdles, Schumer had opted for months not to bring it up for a vote. But election season has presented an opportunity for Democrats to lean in on the issue as well as put the spotlight on Vance. Schumer even referenced “the junior senator from Ohio” when speaking on the Senate floor, leaving no doubt he’s part of their thinking in holding the vote.

Vance claimed in a Fox News interview that Vice President Kamala Harris was calling for an end to the child tax credit. But the Biden administration led the effort to bolster the child tax credit during the pandemic and fought unsuccessfully to continue the expansion, which temporarily increased the credit to $3,000 a year, added 17-year-olds and boosted the amount to $3,600 for children under six years old.

Schumer called Vance’s claim “plain old nonsense” and said the 2021 expansion was one of the most significant achievements Democrats have had under the Biden-Harris administration.

Vance also suggested in 2021 that political leaders who didn’t have biological children “don’t really have a direct stake” in the country. He doubled down on those remarks after clips of the remarks resurfaced by saying earlier this week on the SiriusXM radio program “The Megyn Kelly Show” that the Democratic Party had become “anti-family and anti-child.”

“The Republicans have been giving big speeches about how they are pro-family and pro-kids, and they say it again and again. But when it comes time for a vote, they’re AWOL,” Wyden said. “Now, they are going to get the vote, and we’re going to be able to see who is going to be there for the kids and the families.”

Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, both in competitive races this fall, spoke extensively on the Senate floor in support of the bill. But Cornyn, the Texas Republican, called Thursday’s action the latest in a series of “show votes” designed to fail but would provide Democrats “with a talking point or two on the campaign trail.” He said the bill should have been the subject of a Senate committee hearing that would allow lawmakers to shape it before it came to the floor.

Sen. John Thune, the second-ranking Senate Republican, said he expects a few Republicans to vote for the measure, but he anticipated that it would not be enough to meet the 60-vote threshold needed to advance the bill. He said there are good things in the legislation, but “if we’re in a position to do this next year, it will be a much stronger bill.”

Thune said it won’t be hard for Republicans to rebuff criticism that they were insufficiently supportive of tax relief for businesses and families.

“There are certain issues that voters instinctively know that Republicans are better on,” Thune said. “They may try to make that argument in a political ad, but I think it’ll be hard to sustain when most voters know that it was the Republicans in 2017 that cut taxes and that next year it will be Republicans who extend those tax cuts if we have the majority.”