[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 64 (Monday, April 15, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2728-S2729]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



            Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act

  Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, it is Tax Day in America, and millions of 
parents and thousands of small, innovative business owners are now 
wondering why Senate Republicans are sitting on bipartisan legislation 
that would help them get ahead.
  Here is what Americans at home and small business owners trying to 
make payroll need to know. The bill on offer in the Senate is the Tax 
Relief for American Families and Workers Act. I proposed it with 
Chairman Jason Smith of the House Ways and Means Committee in January. 
It is a combination of ideas from both sides of the aisle. It expands 
the child tax credit, focusing on kids from low-income families. It 
ends the long-running discrimination against low-income families with 
more than one kid, few of whom can claim the credit for each of their 
kids. You can't have three or four kids dividing up one pair of 
sneakers, but that is kind of the way it works today.
  Our proposal beefs up the incentive for research and development and 
investments in new things like new equipment and software. Just today, 
the Senate Finance Committee released new data that we have received 
from the Treasury Department on the calamity facing small businesses if 
the Senate doesn't pass this bipartisan bill. According to the Treasury 
Department, 3.8 million small businesses claimed bonus appreciation of 
the research and development deduction in 2021. They will be left hurt 
if the Senate doesn't pass the bill.
  The situation is especially dire for the small businesses that are 
hyperfocused on innovation through research and development. Every 
Member of this body talks about making sure those businesses can 
compete with China, and a lot of the small businesses that are going to 
get hurt, if this doesn't pass, are startups that have the potential to 
grow into economic powerhouses. Many of them operate in fields where 
our economy competes directly with China and other countries around the 
world.
  This isn't just a handful of businesses scattered here and there. The 
Treasury Department identified 10,000 of the small businesses from all 
over the country. Their operating costs are dominated by research and 
development, but the biggest tax incentive for research and development 
is now one-fifth as valuable to them as it used to be. That is because 
of changes that were made by Republicans during the Trump 
administration. Right now, a lot of these research and development 
small businesses are telling every Senator who will listen that they 
may not survive if the Senate fails to act.
  In addition to small businesses, the bill will boost low-income 
housing, adding more than 200,000 new units across the country. And, 
incredibly, it is paid for by shutting down a pandemic-era tax program 
that is just riddled with fraud.
  Congress has some difficult tax debates. There is a big one coming up 
in 2025. This bill, according to 357 Members of the other body--this 
bill--is the easy stuff. The list of groups supporting this bill is so 
broad that it almost takes your breath away: progressive economic 
groups, conservative economic groups, parents' coalitions, pro-life 
organizations, anti-poverty groups, small business advocates, 
manufacturers. I can just go on and on into the night describing all of 
the members of this coalition that spans the political spectrum who 
just want to stand up for kids and small businesses and people who want 
a roof over their heads. They want to see this bill become law, and 
they want to see it become law now.
  In January, the bill sailed through the Ways and Means Committee with 
no strong opposition, and it sailed through the House, as I said, with 
357 votes in favor. These days you can't get 357 Members of the House 
of Representatives to vote for apple pie and sunshine. The bill came 
over to the Senate, and it has now been sitting for 10 weeks.
  I am here to state that I have talked to a number of Senate 
Republicans who like this bill very much. Some Senate Republicans 
objected to a provision in the bill that deals with what is called a 
lookback. That provision deals with the flexibility for families to 
claim the child tax credit using their income from the previous few 
months. Senate Republicans claim it would disincentivize work.
  The people we hire to do analysis of these matters, the Joint 
Committee on Taxation, disagrees. Conservative experts from the Tax 
Foundation, Americans for Tax Reform, and the American Enterprise 
Institute disagree. They all said the bill wouldn't have an impact on 
work.
  Regardless, I told my Republican colleague on the Finance Committee, 
Senator Crapo, I would be willing to drop the lookback policy. We said: 
We will take an alternative approach that ensures that we get the same 
cut in child poverty, and nobody would say it affected work. I also 
offered to add additional policies that Senate Republicans had talked 
about and advocated for before. That offer that I made, based on my 
conversations with colleagues on the other side of the aisle, was 
unacceptable. The changes that our colleague from Idaho, Senator Crapo, 
asked for would have destroyed any chance of passing the bill and left 
way too many kids living in poverty. The offer I received from the 
other side of the aisle would not have gotten a single Democratic vote 
here in the Senate. So put that in context.
  What I offered was the No. 1 thing that I heard Senate Republicans 
talking about. We figured out a way to get it done without it hurting 
kids. And what we were offered in return was something that would have 
killed the bill.
  I will say to the Senate here today, on Tax Day, my offer of 
compromise, as I proposed it to Senate Republicans--my offer--still 
stands.
  Now, I am going to close by saying that some Senate Republicans 
prefer to wait. The idea is they can write their own bill in 2025 if 
they win the Senate in November.
  I am here to say that kids and small businesses and those desperate 
for a roof over their heads cannot afford to wait.
  This bill would help 16 million kids from low-income families. They 
can't afford to wait. Fixing the discrimination against families with 
two, three, four kids is something that cannot wait. Those families 
need help buying food and diapers and new shoes. Today, those kids are 
stuck splitting a single tax credit. As I said, you can't split a 
single pair of sneakers. Those kids should not have to wait.
  This bill would lift half a million kids from poverty. It would be 
unconscionable to leave those kids in poverty

[[Page S2729]]

for political gain. They should not have to wait.
  The bill would boost the incentive for research and development and 
throw a lifeline to small business owners who are worried about keeping 
their doors open right now. Those small business owners should not have 
to wait.
  And, colleagues, it is just, to me, mind-boggling that the Senate 
would forego this opportunity to tackle fraud in the employee retention 
credit, which is the pandemic-era program the bill would shut down.
  I sat with the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and heard the 
IRS Commissioner telling us that as much as 95 percent of these claims 
coming in were fraudulent or illegitimate. The IRS Commissioner agreed, 
when I asked him about this, that that was the number, during a meeting 
earlier this year.
  This is the only bill on offer to shut down this firehose of fraud. 
It is unthinkable that the Senate would allow all this fraud to 
continue.
  I have been doing a lot of town meetings at home. The reaction is 
always the same: People are just kind of slack-jawed at the idea that 
the Congress is actually on the verge of passing a bipartisan bill that 
would help a whole lot of families and businesses that every day walk 
an economic tightrope. At the same time, they just scratch their heads 
when I tell them that Senate Republicans have been holding it up.
  It is time to get this done. If the Senate doesn't pass the bill, the 
soonest it will revisit these issues, in all likelihood, is late 2025. 
So, I would say that we have a bill that is going to help millions of 
Americans now. The alternative is to wait around for 18 months or 
longer. At that point, the Senate is going to have to deal with 
trillions of dollars in tax policies up in the air. It is not as simple 
as setting these issues aside for just a few months and then making 
some modest changes on the margins.
  Today and now is the Senate's opportunity. Sixteen million kids and 
thousands of small businesses should not have to wait. It is time to 
get this bipartisan bill passed in the U.S. Senate.
  I yield the floor.