Child Tax Credit

Floor Speech

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Mr. ESPAILLAT. Mr. Speaker, when the child tax credit was originally expanded by the American Rescue Plan in 2021, it provided a lifeline to families during very serious economic hardship.

The benefit allowed families to receive an extra $3,600 annually for kids under the age of 6 years old and $3,000 annually for children over 6 years of age. In my district, the child tax credit provided $185 million to 123,000 children and 47,000 families.

The expansion lifted 13,700 children in my district out of poverty. It is a district with a median household income of $48,638 and where emergency room visits for children with asthma are 20 times higher in the Bronx than any other borough. An average of 28 percent of residents are paying 50 percent or more of their income in rent. It is a district where about 84 percent of the 475,000 households earn below the poverty level and have a severe rent burden.

Mr. Speaker, students in the school districts that I represent receive some of the highest rates of title I funding in the city.

I am heartened to hear of the negotiations that will include an expanded child tax credit for low-income families. However, the agreement fails to make the full child tax credit available as a refund to families with little or no taxable income. I don't get this. All of a sudden, this is leaving the neediest families, the lowest earning families, out of the benefit. They will receive no child tax credit.

The objectors to this are the same folks who share this floor and, time after time, refer to the Bible. They say that the Bible states that we must feed the hungry. They say that the Bible states that we must shelter the homeless. They say that the Bible says that we must provide clothing to those who are needy. They say that the Bible says that we must welcome strangers.

Mr. Speaker, the same Holy Book that they refer to year after year says that we must welcome strangers. Now, I can share with you that it says, for example, in Matthew: ``For I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed Me.''

Yet, these folks oppose helping the neediest, and they go back home every week to their districts and rely on the Holy Book that says completely the opposite.

We just heard it right here on the floor, Mr. Speaker.

Under the framework, again, the lowest earning families will receive no child tax credit. It is crucial that the tax framework be improved to ensure that substantial tax cuts to working-class families are there and that they receive that benefit just as we did back in 2021.

The naysayers are either with the Holy Book or not. The naysayers cannot continue to oppose the neediest. We have to provide this help to America's neediest families. It is at the very center of who we are as a country.

Let's welcome the strangers. The economy needs them. Historically, we have not been able to move forward without the help of them. Every chapter of our history that has seen a major transformation in our economy has seen the presence of strangers. Let's give them the help that they need.

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