A bill that would expand child tax credits and bolster businesses could be blocked because it makes Joe Biden "look good," according to a GOP senator.
The House of Representatives passed the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024 on Wednesday by an overwhelming majority of 357 to 70 votes. But Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican, told news platform Semafor that the bill could shed favorable light on the president ahead of the November 2024 election.
He said that "passing a tax bill that makes the president look good mailing out checks before the election means he could be reelected," meaning Republicans would not be able to extend the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, a Donald Trump era law that lowered individual tax rates, which is set to expire in late 2025.
"Senator Grassley has not yet taken a position on the tax bill," a Grassley spokesperson told Newsweek. "He looks forward to providing input when the Senate Finance Committee holds a markup on it so that Senate Republicans have the chance to weigh in."
The tax relief bill has not yet been scheduled for a vote but would need 60 votes to pass the Senate.
Known also as the Wyden-Smith Bill, the new tax framework would enhance child tax credit by expanding access and eliminating penalties for larger families and expand some business tax breaks, according to information released by the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance.
If passed, it would make it easier for families to meet the requirements for child tax credit, along with boosting the annual amount from $1,600 per child by $200 to $1,800 in 2023, proceeding upward to $1,900 in 2024 and $2,000 in the following year. But it could face an uncertain path to being enshrined into law if Senate Republicans are not on board with the proposal.
Read more: The Child Tax Credit: Who Qualifies and How to Claim It
Other Republicans have also expressed a degree of skepticism regarding the bill. "If Jason Smith and Ron Wyden can agree on something to this degree, that's this complicated, I start with the notion that it's certainly serious and we'll take a look at it," North Dakota Senator Kevin Cramer told reporters on Thursday.
Utah Senator Mitt Romney said that while he is in favor of tax provisions, he cannot get behind "adding a new entitlement that's going to end up costing about $800 billion over a decade."
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has given his backing to the bill, telling reporters that he is "working with Senator Wyden to figure out the best way forward."
A press release issued by the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance described the bill as a "tax framework that promotes the financial security of working families, boosts growth and American competitiveness, and strengthens communities and Main Street businesses."
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities' (CBPP) Chuck Marr, an expert on federal tax policy, previously told Newsweek that the bill would help an additional 19 million children across the U.S.
"This bipartisan proposal rightly focuses on the roughly 19 million children who today are left out of the full child tax credit because their families' incomes are too low. This proposal would increase the credit for more than 80 percent of these children—about 16 million children—lifting as many as 400,000 children above the poverty line in the first year and making an additional 3 million children less poor," he said.
Update 2/2/24, 11:23 a.m. ET: This story was updated with comment from a Grassley spokesperson.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
fairness meter
To Rate This Article
About the writer
Aliss Higham is a Newsweek reporter based in Glasgow, Scotland. Her focus is reporting on issues across the U.S., including ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
