Senate Republicans blocked a $79 billion bill to expand the child tax credit and restore some tax breaks for businesses on Thursday.
The bill passed with overwhelming support in the House by a 357-70 vote in January. But on Thursday, most Republicans opposed the measure in a 48-44 procedural vote and the bill fell shy of the 60 votes needed for it to pass.
This measure, however, was expected to fail in the Senate after GOP lawmakers in the upper chamber brought up concerns with the bill, and Republicans have accused Democrats of using the vote as a talking point on the campaign trail ahead of the election in November.
“The question is, will Senate Republicans join us to give Americans a tax break or will they stand in the way?” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said before the vote.
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said on the Senate floor, “I’m not so certain the American people are impressed by message votes. And I don’t think they’ll give out points for incomplete work.”
South Dakota Senator John Thune, the second-ranking Senate Republican, said there are good parts of the bill, but, “if we’re in a position to do this next year, it will be a much stronger bill,” AP reported on Thursday.
“There are certain issues that voters instinctively know that Republicans are better on,” Thune said. “They may try to make that argument in a political ad, but I think it’ll be hard to sustain when most voters know that it was the Republicans in 2017 that cut taxes and that next year it will be Republicans who extend those tax cuts if we have the majority.”
Under the bill, which would be in effect for three years, roughly 19 million children who currently get a partial tax credit or no tax credit because their families’ incomes are too low would get more credit. The bill, when in full effect, would lift about 500,000 or more children out of poverty and roughly 5 million more children would be less poor with the expansion.
Businesses would also benefit from the bill which includes provisions that would allow them to immediately deduct the cost of their U.S.-based research and experimental investments rather than deducting it over a five-year period and allow them to immediately deduct 100 percent of their investment in machinery and equipment.
After the House passed the bill, some Republican senators criticized the bill and pushed for it to go through the Senate Finance Committee so lawmakers could try to amend the legislation.
“I’m not sure what we really got out of it,” Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, said, according to a February article from CNN. “Now, if you want to talk about all the tax provisions that are set to expire next year and bring that forward and find a legitimate pay-for for the child tax credit, then count me in. I just don’t think—I don’t think that this is a package that we should be pounding the table for.”
