[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2257 Introduced in Senate (IS)]








109th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2257

 To provide for an enhanced refundable credit for families who resided 
       in the Hurricane Katrina disaster area on August 28, 2005.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            February 8, 2006

   Mr. Obama (for himself, Ms. Landrieu, Mr. Durbin, and Mr. Kerry) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
                          Committee on Finance

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To provide for an enhanced refundable credit for families who resided 
       in the Hurricane Katrina disaster area on August 28, 2005.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Hurricane Katrina Working Family Tax 
Relief Act of 2006''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) The child tax credit is the Federal Government's 
        largest subsidy for children, with an annual value of over 
        $55,000,000,000.
            (2) More than 25 percent of all children, including nearly 
        50 percent of all African-American children and 46 percent of 
        all Latino children, are in families too poor to qualify for 
        the full $1,000 per year child tax credit, in spite of the fact 
        that the vast majority of these children are in working 
        families.
            (3) Parents who have 2 children and who both work full time 
        for a full year at the minimum wage will earn too little to be 
        eligible for the full child tax credit, and a single mother who 
        works full time for a full year at the minimum wage will earn 
        too little to be eligible for even a partial child tax credit.
            (4) The damage caused by Hurricane Katrina covered 90,000 
        square miles along America's Gulf Coast, and many of the 
        devastated counties and parishes already had among the highest 
        rates of poverty and child poverty in the nation.
            (5) Mississippi and Louisiana are two States with the 
        highest proportions of children left out of the full child tax 
        credit.

SEC. 3. WORKING FAMILY TAX RELIEF.

    For purposes of section 24(d) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 
(relating to portion of child tax credit made refundable), in the case 
of any taxable year beginning during 2006 or 2007, with respect to any 
taxpayer who had a primary residence in the Hurricane Katrina disaster 
area (as defined in section 1400M(2) of such Code) on August 28, 2005, 
clause (i) of section 24(d)(1)(B) of such Code shall be applied by 
substituting 10 percent of the taxpayer's earned income for such 
taxable year for the amount which would otherwise be determined under 
such clause for such taxable year. A taxpayer may elect not to have 
this section apply for any taxable year.
                                 <all>