To offset the financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the American Rescue Plan in 2021 temporarily expanded the child tax credit to increase benefits for American families. An extension to the expanded benefits was included in the Build Back Better Act, a package of economic and infrastructure proposals that failed in the Senate this year.
When President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan passed Congress in 2021, it received no GOP support in either the House or Senate, but it was able to move forward anyway with Democratic backing. Democrats currently have a majority in the House and are tied 50-50 with Republicans in the Senate, but they have Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaker vote on their side.
With the midterm elections on Tuesday, Republicans appear poised to flip control of the House, and potentially even secure control of the Senate. FiveThirtyEight’s election models for each chamber show that Republicans are favored to win the House, prevailing in 84 out of 100 outcomes, and slightly favored to win the Senate, prevailing in 55 out of 100 outcomes.
If Republicans again oppose future legislation that includes extensions for the expanded child tax credit, as they did with the American Rescue Plan, majorities in the House and Senate would give them the power to block it. Whether they would ultimately choose to do so remains unclear.
The Child Tax Credit was only one aspect of the American Rescue Plan, which also provided emergency funding for states and capital projects, as well as financial assistance for homeowners in need, according to the Treasury Department. Though all Republicans objected to the American Rescue Plan, it was not immediately clear how all GOP members of Congress feel about the expanded child tax credit by itself.
Republicans in the Democratic-led House Ways and Means Committee have urged against a permanent extension of the expanded credit that was temporarily enacted by Democrats. Representative Kevin Brady of Texa,s the ranking Republican on the Ways and Means panel, has objected to families with no tax obligations from getting the child tax credit benefits, according to Insider. One of the key elements of the expanded credit was that it removed a minimum income requirement, NPR reported.
If Republicans object to an extension for the expanded credit with the changes designated by Democrats, this could deprive American families of a benefit that some experts and analysts have said was extremely beneficial.
What Is The Child Tax Credit?
One article published by the Center for American Progress, a public policy research and advocacy organization, described it as a “crucial financial lifeline” to American families due to the increased payments and wider eligibility under the temporary expansion.
Megan Curran, policy director at the Columbia University Center on Poverty and Social Policy, told NPR that by the end of the six months in which families received money under the temporarily expanded credit, the payments had “reduced child poverty in the U.S. by about 30 percent.”
In an October letter to Democratic colleagues, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also highlighted the Child Tax Credit as one of several measures that would “bring down the costs of the biggest line items in families’ budgets and give them more breathing room.”
Enacting the credit and other items, like House-passed investments in family and medical leave, child care, affordable housing and legislation like the Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act, “is a top priority for a Democratic Majority in the next Congress,” Pelosi wrote.
Newsweek reached out to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for comment.
