Horsford: More than 500K kids benefited from tax credits

WASHINGTON – More than a half million Nevada children benefited from an extension of the increased child tax credit passed last year in the bipartisan coronavirus rescue package, White House officials and Rep. Steven Horsford told a news conference Tuesday.

At the one-year anniversary of President Joe Biden signing the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan into law, White House senior adviser Gene Sperling said 40 million families and 65 million children nationwide saw benefits from the child tax credit expansion.

The result was the largest reduction in “child poverty in our nation’s history,” said Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who spearheaded Senate efforts to extend the child tax credit.

In Nevada alone, 382,000 families and 631,000 children will receive the benefit following tax season when the remainder of the extended and increased benefits are doled out, according to the White House.

“It essentially got money into the pockets of families that really needed it,” said Horsford, D-Nev., who helped write the benefit into legislation crafted by the House Ways and Means Committee.

Horsford said the child tax credit brought relief to about 167,000 qualifying children in his congressional district, which includes Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and six rural counties in Central Nevada.

Sperling, Booker and Horsford noted that families filing income taxes could see up to $8,000 in benefits under the child tax credit provisions to offset child care and other expenses.

Horsford praised the child credit as a key to addressing racial disparities of child poverty. The benefit targeted working families and those forced from the workforce by the coronavirus when child care centers and schools closed.

“It’s women and women of color that were disproportionately impacted during the pandemic and the recession that followed,” Horsford told the news conference.

“That’s why we needed it to be intentional about the benefits going to those who need it most,” Horsford said.

According to the nonpartisan Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, 95 percent of rural Nevada children benefitted from the expansion, as did 92 percent of Nevada children in metro areas.

The plan’s Increased Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit reduced child poverty by roughly 4 percent, or 3.6 million children, nationally, according to the White House.

The child tax creditwas increased to between $3,000 and $3,600 per child during the pandemic. It expired in December 2021. Unless Congress passes another bill, the credit will revert back to $2,000.

The Biden administration and congressional Democrats want the child tax credit extension made permanent. But Senate Republicans oppose a permanent child tax credit at pandemic levels, citing the cost. The entire assistance package, including the tax credits, totaled $219 billion.

Also opposed is Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., whose defection is a hurdle for Democratic passage in the evenly split 50-50 Senate. Manchin balked at the $150,000 threshold for families to receive the child tax credit, which Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called “welfare” and GOP lawmakers described as a disincentive to work.

“We’ve seen the destructive consequences that follow when the government pays people not to work,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said in a statement.

Booker said “we know what the challenges are, what the lay of the land is, but it’s something I’m going to continue to work on.”

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, has proposed an enhanced child tax credit that would provide similar benefits to the extension that expired in December, balanced with cuts to other credits and aid to families.

The Democratic proposal would be funded with tax hikes on wealthier wage earners and corporations.

Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@reviewjournal.com. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.