On July 16, the House rejected, 206-220, a motion that would have put Members on record as favoring the Senate version of the child tax credit legislation (H.R. 1350). Five Republicans joined with Democrats in support of the motion offered by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT). On July 17, the House also rejected, 202-214, an identical motion to instruct offered by Rep. Michael Michaud (D-ME). The House also rejected a motion by Rep. Chris Bell (D-TX)by a yea-and-nay vote of 188 to 201. Democrats plan to continue to offer the motion daily in an effort to draw attention to what they are labeling as Republican stall tactics.
On June 12, the House approved, 224-201, legislation (H.R. 1308) that would provide for $82 billion in new tax cuts through 2010, and make the $1,000 child tax credit available to more low-income families and higher-income married couples. The move sparked a confrontation with the Senate, which passed a smaller $10 billion plan on June 5 (see The Source, 6/6/03). Immediately after passing H.R. 1308, the House agreed to a motion by Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), identical to the two motions rejected this week, instructing House conferees to push for the narrower Senate version of the bill. Eight Democrats and eight Republicans who voted for the House bill also voted for the Rangel motion, which passed 205-201. While House negotiators are not bound by the motion, it put the House on record in support of the Senate bill.
Rep. DeLauro reiterated Democratic concerns that the House bill doesn’t do enough to help the neediest families. “While decent, hard-working Americans are being denied their rightfully earned tax relief, companies are still permitted to go overseas to avoid paying U.S. taxes, taking American jobs with them,” she said. “It is not right that every last one of these families pays more taxes than Enron did for the 4 out of the last 5 years. Think about that for a moment. Every minimum-wage-earning family in America paid more taxes than a multibillion dollar corporation. What kind of a message does this send to our families and our children? What kind of values does this represent?”
Rep. DeLauro also noted that the same motion to instruct was approved by the House in June. “The motion passed in this body on June 12 on a bipartisan basis by a vote of 205 to 201. More than a month has passed, and yet the conferees have not taken action to resolve this issue, and I will tell the Members why. The majority leader said that helping those families was not important to them,” she said.
Rep. Bill Thomas (R-CA), who sponsored the bill, addressed the June 12 vote. “The gentlewoman is correct. This is exactly the motion that was offered some time ago. She focuses on the fact that it passed 205 to 201. If they are to take some credence in a vote on a motion which is non-binding, perhaps we will provide her with a different vote this time so the argument that it passed would not be available to her.”
Rep. Thomas went on to address the differences between his bill and the Senate version of the child tax credit. “If the Members really want to know what this is all about, I would urge someone to review the debate that took place on the floor of the Senate, in which someone who is up for reelection in November of 2004 was pleading to provide this relief between now and, do not be surprised, December 31, 2004, i.e., between the period of now and when they stand for reelection. This plea to assist these folk in receiving a $1,000 child tax credit is only of interest between now and the election. … What we did, we said we ought to take care of the valley created by the legislation to make sure that every year, not just the time between now and the next election, but for the rest of the decade, if we committed to providing $1,000 per child, we ought to provide it for the whole decade. That is policy, not politics.”
Democrats are pressing for action on the child tax credit before the August recess, and are accusing Republicans of stalling on working out the differences between the House and Senate bills.
