Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) has long championed the child tax credit, and the senior Democrat says her party should drive home its support for a bigger family benefit before Election Day.
Vice President Kamala Harris recently embraced House Democrats’ proposal for expanding the CTC — a bill led by DeLauro — by proposing thousands of dollars in extra benefits for newborns on top of other boosts for families.
Democrats’ embrace of the CTC as a campaign promise isn’t new. But former President Donald Trump’s VP pick, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), backs the policy too, saying he’d like to see the CTC more than doubled to $5,000 per child.
DeLauro told us she still believes there’s a big contrast between Democrats and Republicans on the CTC, and that it’s a message her party should drive home.
“I don’t know where they’re coming from on this,” DeLauro said of Vance’s comments. “But it’s certainly not where we are with a proven, a solid program that worked from the outset and met what it was supposed to do and gave people the biggest middle class tax cut in a generation… and that’s going to be the fight next year.”
DeLauro was referencing Democrats’ temporary 2021 expansion of the CTC in the American Rescue Plan Act, which they want to revive. DeLauro also argued that Republicans’ 2017 CTC expansion — which expires next year alongside other Trump tax cuts — didn’t do enough for some of the poorest families.
DeLauro sees the CTC as an issue for her party to own before the election.
The tax fight: After the dust settles on the election, even more attention will turn to the big 2025 tax fight. And clashing visions of how to expand the CTC could be one of the biggest obstacles if there is a divided government.
DeLauro, who has worked on a CTC expansion for decades, said she’s seen the support grow significantly. The veteran Democratic lawmaker noted Harris’ enthusiasm for the CTC during a meeting she attended in the lead-up to the American Rescue Plan’s passage, and VP pick Tim Walz’s work on a state-level CTC as Minnesota governor.
DeLauro is aware that 2025 may not offer a smooth path. She said Democrats must “make a fight” if they need to work on a tax bill with Republicans next year. DeLauro added they should refuse to deal on some of the GOP’s priorities without the kind of major CTC expansion Democrats envision.
Still, DeLauro believes the momentum is finally there for a CTC expansion, noting it will be at the top of Democrats’ agenda.
“I think that this is a moment,” DeLauro said. “And that we are that close to seeing a permanent child tax credit.”
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