[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 134 (Friday, July 30, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5212-S5213]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Child Tax Credit

  Mr. BROWN. Madam President, with the Presiding Officer's help, and 
the help of 48 others--48 others in this body, we provided back in 
March an amendment; and then in final passage, we provided the biggest 
tax cut--the largest tax cut for working families ever.
  It is called the Child Tax Credit. It has been several years in the 
making. We didn't make so much progress the last 4 years, but an 
election and a new President, coupled with a new U.S. Senate, has made 
all the difference in the world.
  In my State, 2.4 million children are eligible. And 2.1 million of 
those--I will get to that in a moment; we haven't reached everybody 
yet. But 2.1 million saw last week in the mail--in their mailbox or 
direct deposits in their bank accounts--2.1 million children were the 
beneficiary of $250 or $300 last week.
  So every month--July 15, coming up August 15, September 15, October 
15, children from zero to 5, their parents will get $300 each of those 
months. If their children are 6 to 17, those families will get $250 per 
child. Almost every child--92 percent of children in Ohio, roughly the 
same; 9 out of 10 in the State of Wisconsin, the Presiding Officer's 
State, will be getting--their families will be getting checks in the 
mail--these checks in the mail.
  In sort of a macro big way, we know this does a number of things. 
First of all, it drops the poverty rate among America's children by 
almost 50 percent. Imagine that. One bill we do drops the poverty rate 
among children in this country by 50 percent, something government has 
never been able to do. And because of this Child Tax Credit, the 
largest tax cut for working families in American history, it will make 
a huge difference.
  In another macro sort of way, the people of Wisconsin and Ohio and 
other

[[Page S5213]]

States will benefit because we are injecting this kind of money. In 
Ohio last week, $550 million was sent to the State from the Federal 
Government to these children, to these families. And for most of these 
families--the wealthiest people don't get this--it is 90 percent; 9 out 
of 10 families do, but they have children.
  This money goes directly into these communities. They are going to be 
spending this money at the local grocery store, the local hardware 
store, to fix their car so they don't miss work, and maybe take their 
kid once in a while to a restaurant. So the money is not going to be 
put in a Swiss bank account. It will be spent in local communities, 
making a difference. That is sort of the big picture.
  The joy of working on this bill and starting--I started working on 
this in 2013, joined by Michael Bennet and Senator Booker, and then, 
since he came, Senator Warnock and Senator Baldwin and Senator Ossoff 
have been helpful and Senator Wyden, the chair of the Finance 
Committee. The joy of this is to see how this affects individual 
families' lives.
  So a couple of weeks ago, before the checks were sent out, I did a 
series of roundtables in Defiance, in Findlay, in Ryan, in Cleveland, 
in Dayton, in Toledo, in--where else?--in Youngstown, and in 
Cincinnati, and I just asked families: What are you going to do with 
this money? Many families didn't know it was even coming; the word 
wasn't out yet. I just heard some interesting comments. But then after 
the checks were sent out, I also heard stories, and here is what this 
means to families:
  One mother said: You know, for the first time, I can now send my son 
to camp for a week, to a summer camp--for the first time in her life.
  A father said: You know, I am now going to be able to buy for my 
daughter--she loves fastpitch softball. She is really good. I am going 
to be able to buy her the equipment to do that.
  A number of families said: We are now in a position where we can 
actually, without scrounging--so many American families can barely 
afford their rent. Twenty-five percent of American families pay half 
their income in rent. Think about that. One out of four renters pays 
half their income in rent. One thing goes wrong in their lives--their 
car breaks down--they can end up being evicted.
  So what this $300 per child or $250 per child--for a lot of families, 
it just relieved the anxiety of the difficulty of putting together the 
money they need to pay their rent, because the last week of a month for 
many families is different from the first three because, the last week, 
they start making cuts and not spending as much money on food, all the 
things they have got to do to pay their rent. Look, this is going to 
alleviate--it is going to lift that burden off so many families.
  Other families who are a little more affluent but still, you know, 
hanging on to being middle class are now able, they told me, to put 
$100 aside every month. Because of this child tax credit, because of 
the largest tax cut for working families ever, they are going to be 
able to put aside $100 a month for their child to go to Ohio State or 
to Denison or to Cleveland State or to Sinclair Community College in 
Ohio.
  So all the kinds of things--and you know, Madam President, I know you 
have, in Wisconsin, have thought about this. The best thing about this 
is, you know, it is not Senator Baldwin or Senator Schumer or Senator 
McConnell or President Biden--it is not them saying to a family: OK. 
Here is some money. Here is where you are going to spend it. We are 
going to help you with this. We are going to help you. It is trusting 
these families. This $250 a month or $300 a month these families get, 
they get this money, and they decide what is best for their family.
  It is still, frankly, Madam President, inexplicable to me that 
everybody on this side of the aisle voted no, every single one of them. 
They had two chances. They voted no on an amendment on the bill, and 
then they voted no on the bill to give the largest tax cut for working 
families ever.
  We all know around here--it is no secret--that this side of the aisle 
likes tax cuts; they just like them for rich people. But they always 
argue: You know, if we cut taxes on the rich, it will trickle down; it 
will help everybody. Well, there is kind of no evidence for that, but 
they keep doing it because they know that it plays really well with 
their rich contributors.
  But this is what tax cuts are really about. The child tax credit puts 
money in people's pockets, it gives them the choice on how to spend 
those dollars on behalf of their families, and it helps the community 
because there is more money in the community. We know that, and we know 
that the best kind of infrastructure, the best way to build 
infrastructure in this country is to build a foundation for families.
  I am for this bill that we are considering now: water, sewer, 
highways, bridges. I want to do that, but I want to build a foundation 
for families, too, not just the physical--a better highway system, a 
better water and sewer system--but I want to give families broadband. I 
want to give families a little bit of money like this does. I want to 
build and help families with housing because then that foundation--
these families can launch their children into a more prosperous future, 
and that is, to me, what this is all about. That is why the child tax 
credit is the most important thing I have ever worked on in my career, 
and I think it is one of the most important things Congress has done in 
a quarter century.
  I yield the floor.
  (Mr. BROWN assumed the Chair.)
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Hirono). The majority leader.