Bipartisan group pitches Child Tax Credit expansion

Congressional negotiators have unveiled their nearly $80 billion tax plan — now they have to pass it

Photo by Larry French / Getty Images for SKDK
Children advocate for expanded child tax credit
(Image credit: Photo by Larry French / Getty Images for SKDK)

Congressional negotiators on Tuesday unveiled their long-awaited tax package that would ease burdens on small businesses while expanding the popular child tax credit program that has been widely lauded for helping dramatically cut child poverty rates in the United States. 

The proposal, hammered out by chief negotiators Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) of the Senate Finance Committee and Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) of the House Ways and Means Committee, is a "commonsense, bipartisan, bicameral tax framework" the pair announced in a press release touting the agreement. In addition to expanding the child tax credit, the proposal would "lift the tax credit's $1,600 refundable cap and adjust it for inflation," NBC News reported, citing analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities which estimated that, once fully in effect, the expansion would "lift some 500,000 or more children above the poverty line" while benefiting some 5 million children in total. 

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Rafi Schwartz, The Week US

Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.