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

WASHINGTON — Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer challenges Republicans to vote against a bipartisan tax cut package that aims to expand child benefits for millions of families and restore some tax breaks for corporations.

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

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

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

“The American people will have a chance to see which senators actually support tax cuts for parents, businesses and housing, and who opposes them,” Schumer said.

The approximately $79 billion package was passed by the House of Representatives overwhelming in January, 357-70. But it is stalled in the Senate. The procedural vote to pass the measure requires the support of 60 senators, which is unlikely.

The bill was 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. It would restore the full, immediate deductions that businesses can take for the purchase of new equipment and machinery, and for domestic research and development costs. It would also help more low-income families take advantage of the child tax credit.

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

The bill will be paid by speeding up the deadline for businesses to file retroactive claims for workers they kept on payroll during the COVID pandemic. The IRS has said that a significant majority of retroactive claims are at high risk of fraud.

Because the bill seemingly failed to gain the support needed to overcome procedural hurdles, Schumer had spent months deciding not to bring it up for a vote. But election season provided Democrats with an opportunity to hone in on the issue and turn the spotlight on Vance. Schumer even referred to him as “the junior senator from Ohio” when speaking on the Senate floor, leaving no doubt that he was part of their thinking in holding the vote.

Vance claimed in an interview with Fox News that Vice President Kamala Harris called for an end to the child tax credit. But the Biden administration led the effort to increase child benefit during the pandemic and fought unsuccessfully to continue the expansion, temporarily increasing the credit to $3,000 per year, adding 17-year-olds and raising the amount to $3,600 for children under 6.

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

Vance also suggested in 2021 that political leaders who don’t have biological children “don’t really have a vested interest” in the country. He doubled down on those comments after excerpts of the remarks resurfaced, saying earlier this week on SiriusXM’s “The Megyn Kelly Show” that the Democratic Party had become “anti-family, anti-child.”

“The Republicans have made big speeches about how they’re pro-family and pro-children, and they say it over and over again. But when it comes time for a vote, they’re AWOL,” Wyden said. “Now they’re going to vote and we can see who’s going to be there for the children 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 that would give Democrats “a talking point or two on the campaign trail.” He said the bill should have been the subject of a Senate committee hearing so lawmakers could shape it before it reached the floor.

Sen. John Thune, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, said he expects some Republicans to vote for the measure, but he predicted it wouldn’t be enough to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to pass the bill. He said there are good things in the legislation, but “if we’re able to get this done next year, it will be a much stronger bill.”

Thune said it won’t be difficult for Republicans to counter criticism that they are not providing enough support for tax cuts for businesses and families.

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