By PAUL BASS | New Haven Independent
New Haven U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro isn’t done fighting for a child tax credit.
DeLauro promised on Thursday to mount a new effort to revive the federal $3,000 to $3,600-per-kid annual tax credit when Congress resumes. As the influential chair of the House Appropriations Committee, she vowed to insist that any extension of a business-requested research and development (R&D) tax credit be accompanied by an extension and expansion of the child tax credit.
DeLauro spent 18 years championing the tax credit until she succeeded in 2021 in having it included in the federal pandemic-relief American Rescue Plan. It was the signature achievement of her career.
Then Democrats failed to muster enough votes to renew the credit, and it expired.
DeLauro made the promise during a press conference held at the Montessori pre-school on Edgewood Avenue in the Dwight neighborhood. She highlighted the impact the tax credit had in helping families afford child care, food, rent payments, and health care.
It was the second press conference in two days in which Democrat DeLauro, who’s running for election this coming Tuesday to a 17th two-year term, has sought to offer alternative messaging to the successful Republican framing of campaign discourse about inflation. On Wednesday, she addressed gas prices by calling for a windfall profits tax and other measures against oil companies she accused of gouging. (Read about that here.)
State Early Childhood Commissioner Beth Bye and officials from food banks, the United Way, and an early childhood education coalition spoke at the press conference about how they saw the tax credit lift the economic fortunes and quality of life of families in the state.
DeLauro was asked about the political headwinds she faces in pressing for reviving the credit. Republicans have argued that pandemic-era spending on programs like the tax credit caused the inflation that now plagues families.
Broader factors ranging from Russia’s war on Ukraine to the pandemic to price-gouging by food and oil companies have caused inflation, she responded. She presented the child tax credit as the best way to help working families wrestle with rising prices “by putting money back in people’s pockets.”
She noted that in its brief 2021 existence, the credit coincided with the largest drop (around 50 percent) in child poverty and and household hunger (26 percent) in generations.
She also took aim at Congressional colleagues who suggested that families would spend tax credit money on drugs or other misuses. Research showed that in fact the money went toward child care, food, school supplies, transportation, health bills, and rent and mortgage payments. She also said no drop in employment coincided with receipt of the tax credit payments.
“The way we demonized people who struggle is just outrageous,” she stated. “To say folks would not go to work is outrageous. The evidence is overwhelming how parents and families spent this money.”.