Leaders of organizations that oppose abortion are endorsing a bipartisan bill to expand the child tax credit, according to a letter obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024, introduced on Jan.17, is a bipartisan bill that would reform the way the child tax credit is calculated and expand the maximum amount per child to $1,800 per year, with annual increases according to inflation. After the House of Representatives passed the bill on Jan. 31, amid opposition from conservative Republicans, several leaders representing anti-abortion organizations sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell endorsing the bill. (RELATED: ‘We’re Not At All Happy’: House Conservatives Slam Child Tax Credit Expansion)
“Our advocacy extends beyond the protection of life in the womb, as essential and ongoing as such advocacy continues to be. Being pro-life includes advocating for a culture of life and providing families with the resources and environment needed to support their children,” wrote the signatories in their letter on Feb. 22. “We urge you to prioritize the rapid passage of this important package and to reject efforts to delay or substantially dilute it. After several years of a pandemic, high inflation, and a spike in child-raising costs, American families need relief.”
Read the exclusive letter here:
Letter to Sens. Schumer and… by Daily Caller News Foundation
The letter was signed by Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life Action, John Mize, the chief executive of Americans United for Life and Eric Scheidler, the executive director of the Pro-Life Action League. It was also signed by Walter Kim, the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, as well as Carlos Duran, the president of the National Hispanic Pastors Alliance.
The House passed the bill with 357 yeas to 70 nays. Most of the opposition came from Republican members of the House Freedom Caucus, who argued that the bill’s fiscal impact would be too great for the country to bear and objected to provisions that would enable certain parents, who may themselves be illegally present foreign nationals, to claim the credit.
“We’re not at all happy about the rather expensive further expansion of the child tax credit, which…by the way…wouldn’t rule out tax credits basically going to children of illegal aliens,” said Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, the Freedom Caucus’ policy chair, on Jan. 25. A study by the Congressional Budget Office indicates that the bill will increase the deficit by over $117 billion in 2024 and $44 billion over the four years thereafter.
Some pro-life groups, meanwhile, have opposed the credit’s expansion. “The Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act is first and foremost a repudiation of the principles of successful, pro-family welfare reform,” wrote the Heritage Foundation in a report about the bill, adding that “[t]he bill’s cash welfare benefits are socially harmful and an obvious steppingstone to President Biden’s work-free ‘child allowance.’ While offering no meaningful economic growth, this bill would further undermine marriage and healthy family formation.”
The bill was negotiated by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith. Apart from the child tax credit provisions, the bill would authorize a new bilateral tax agreement with Taiwan and impose new penalties for tax fraud during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There’s a reason that over 450 groups representing Americans from all walks of life support this legislation – that includes job creators, those supporting workers and families, and those defending the right to life. It’s a strong, common sense, bipartisan step forward in providing urgent tax relief for working families and small businesses,” said Smith in a debate on the House floor regarding the bill, shortly before its passage.
Wyden told the DCNF on Thursday that he “absolutely” welcomed the support of pro-life groups for the bill. “What it does is it ends the discrimination against low-income families who have more than one child. Very, very important,” he said.
“Families are struggling under Joe Biden, and the economy isn’t turning around anytime soon. We have an opportunity here to get tax relief to the people who need it the most. This is a short-term extension. There’s no need to drag this out over wonky policy disagreements. Get it done, give families and businesses some needed certainty, and we’ll come back and revisit all of this in a year or two,” John Schweppe, the director of policy at the American Principles Project and a signatory to the letter, told the DCNF.
The Senate has not yet scheduled a vote on the passage of the bill, though supporters have sought to pass it expeditiously to enable the credit’s applicability for the upcoming tax filing season ending on April 15.
Schumer and McConnell’s office did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
Editors note: This piece has been updated with comments made to the DCNF by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.