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

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer defied Republicans by voting against a bipartisan tax cut package that aims to expand the child tax credit for millions of families and restore some corporate tax breaks.

Republicans appear poised to do just that on Thursday, with many arguing they will have more leverage to pass the tax changes they want if their party wins control of the White House and both chambers of Congress in November. Large parts of the 2017 tax cuts Republicans passed are set to expire after 2025, pushing tax issues to the forefront.

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

The vote is expected to be the last before senators head home for their August recess, and underscores how both parties are trying to highlight issues they believe will resonate with voters in November. Democrats are also seeking to counter assertions by Donald Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, that Democrats are “anti-family.”

“The American people will have the opportunity to see which senators actually support tax relief for parents, businesses and housing, and who oppose it,” Schumer said.

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the roughly $79 billion package in January, by a vote of 357 to 70. But it has stalled in the Senate. A procedural vote to move the measure forward would require the support of 60 senators, which is unlikely.

The bill, negotiated 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, would restore the full and immediate deductions that businesses can take to buy new equipment and machinery, and to cover domestic research and development expenses. It would also help more low-income families benefit from the child tax credit.

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

The bill is being paid for by accelerating the deadline by which companies can file retroactive claims for employees they kept on payrolls during the Covid pandemic. The IRS has said a large majority of retroactive claims are at risk of fraud.

Because the bill apparently lacked the support to overcome procedural hurdles, Schumer chose for months not to bring it to a vote. But the election season has provided Democrats with an opportunity to weigh in on the issue and put Vance in the spotlight. Schumer even referred to the “young senator from Ohio” when he spoke on the Senate floor, leaving little doubt that he was part of their thinking behind the vote.

Vance claimed in an interview with Fox News that Vice President Kamala Harris had been calling for an end to the child tax credit. But the Biden administration led efforts to expand the child tax credit during the pandemic and fought unsuccessfully to continue expanding it, temporarily increasing the credit to $3,000 a year, adding children as young as 17, and raising the amount to $3,600 for children under six.

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

Vance also suggested in 2021 that political leaders who do not have biological children “don’t really have a vested interest” in the country. He reinforced those statements after clips of the remarks resurfaced by saying earlier this week on SiriusXM radio’s “The Megyn Kelly Show” that the Democratic Party had become “anti-family and anti-child.”

“Republicans have been making big speeches about how they support families and children, and they say that over and over again,” Wyden said. “But when it comes time to vote, they’re out of sight. Now, they’re going to get the vote, and we’re going to see who’s going to be there for children and families.”

Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, both of whom are running in competitive races this fall, have spoken out extensively on the Senate floor in support of the bill. But Cornyn, a Texas Republican, called Thursday’s measure the latest in a series of “show votes” designed to fail but 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 draft it before it came to the floor.

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Sen. John Thune, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, said he expected a handful of Republicans to vote for the measure, but that it would not be enough to meet the 60-vote threshold needed to advance the bill. He said there were good things in the legislation, but “if we can do that next year, it will be a much stronger bill.”

Thune said it would not be difficult for Republicans to dismiss criticism that they do not support enough tax relief for businesses and families.

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

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