[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 125 (Wednesday, July 31, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5640-S5645]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



        Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024

  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President and colleagues, if I started the workday 
with the opportunity to help 16 million kids from low-income families, 
make America more competitive with China, build affordable housing for 
hundreds of thousands of Americans, and pay for it all by cracking down 
on fraud, I would call that a hell of a good day at the office.
  Tomorrow, we are going to find out if Senate Republicans agree. The 
vote on the tax bill tomorrow has been more than 6 months in the 
making. In fact, I have been working on this in a completely bipartisan 
way for 2 full years. The only reason this didn't get done a long time 
ago is delay on the part of the Senate Republicans.
  So no more delay. It is time to vote. Everybody is going to see where 
each Senator stands.
  Over the next 45 minutes or so, I am going to have a number of my 
colleagues talk about why this bill is so important. So I am going to 
start with just a few key points. For starters, the bill was designed 
with balance in mind. For every dollar in tax cuts for business, the 
Joint Committee on Taxation, the official scorekeeper of these matters, 
has told us that an equal amount goes to children and families as goes 
to business.
  Our focus on families is on those that are walking an economic 
tightrope. And 16 million kids are going to benefit from the bill, half 
a million lifted out of poverty--a huge accomplishment. And it is 
especially important for the families with modest incomes; families 
with two, three, or four kids.
  Under the current rules, they get discriminated against because those 
big families get only a single child tax credit regardless of how many 
kids they have. Think about that. Federal law tells these struggling 
families that if you have got a large family, well, try to figure out 
how to get by splitting a single child tax credit, and figure out how 
three or four kids can split a pair of shoes. Three or four kids can't 
do that. They can't split a single meal. This economic discrimination 
against large families in America ought to end.
  There has been a lot of talk about who is really looking out for the 
families. My view is, that is going to become clear when the Senate 
votes tomorrow. We will see who is actually on the side of the families 
that need a boost, families who are facing the kind of economic 
discrimination that I just outlined.
  I know that my colleagues on this side want to make sure that 
families can get the assistance they need, and we want to end the 
discrimination against large families.
  There is so much in this bill that ought to bring the two sides 
together. That is certainly what happened in the House, with 357 votes. 
For example, the bill builds 200,000 new affordable housing units. The 
lack of affordable housing is a nationwide crisis. It is not just blue 
States and cities; it is everywhere.
  On housing, you can call me a supply-sider. We have to build and 
build and build 200,000 new units. And in a minute or two we will hear 
from my colleague in Washington State, who has singlehandedly led the 
effort to meet housing needs in America.
  The bill invests in research and development so we can outcompete 
China. Changes Republicans made to the Tax Code back in 2017 slashed 
the value of the tax incentives for research and development. It is 
worth only 20 percent of what it used to be.
  Republicans have said in 2018, in 2019, in 2020, in 2021, in 2022, in 
2023, and in 2024 that they would fix the research and development tax 
credit mess that they singlehandedly created. Tomorrow is going to be 
their chance.
  According to the Treasury Department, 4 million small businesses 
would benefit from this bill. Picture that, Mr. President: 4 million 
small businesses, startups, ones that depend so much on research and 
development to compete with China. Many of them are in fields that 
compete directly with China and other countries.
  They want to know why in the world would Congress put this off until 
2025. A lot of them say: Ron, we are not going to be around in 2025 if 
you all don't act.
  The bill also provides help to families and businesses hit by mega 
storms and mega wildfires. This is so important to the people in my 
State. I have told them at townhall meetings--I have had almost 1,100 
of them, Mr. President--that we are going to get this done because, in 
Oregon and virtually everywhere in our country, so many of our 
communities have been devastated.
  As I touched on, 357 votes in the House doesn't happen by osmosis. By 
and large, on a normal day, you can't get 357 House Members to agree to 
order a piece of apple pie, but that is the kind of support this tax 
bill had. Left-leaning groups like it; right-leaning groups like it; 
family organizations like it; faith-based organizations like it; pro-
life groups, pro-choice groups--across the political spectrum.
  And in the next day or so we are going to see if the Republicans, who 
talk so much about these issues--help for small business, help for 
families, building housing, preventing fraud--my colleagues on the 
other side of the aisle talk about it constantly. Now we are going to 
find out if anybody wants to actually follow through on the rhetoric. I 
know we do.
  We believe, with the Senate voting now, we have got a chance--as I 
touched on at the beginning--to have a real day at the office, a day 
when you help the kids, when you help the families and the small 
businesses and the people who need housing and people who have been 
devastated by disasters.
  Get all that done tomorrow, Mr. President, and that is one hell of a 
day at the office.
  I yield my time now to my colleague from Washington State, our leader 
on housing issues and many others.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
  Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I come to the floor to join my 
colleague, the chair of the Finance Committee, and thank him for his 
incredible leadership on the Tax Relief for American Families and 
Workers Act. I can't think of a more critical effort than the 
leadership role he has played to negotiate legislation that passed the 
House 357 to 70.
  Now, when in this institution do you see such a big and tremendous 
vote across many different aspects of financial and tax policy that 
affect Americans? And yet the House has passed it 357 to 70, and 
somehow our colleagues here don't understand there is that much support 
behind that legislation.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record, 
on behalf of 140,000 members of the National Association of Home 
Builders, their very strong support for the Tax Relief for the American 
Families and Workers Act.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                                           National Association of


                                                Home Builders,

                                    Washington, DC, July 30, 2024.
     Hon. Chuck Schumer,
     Majority Leader, U.S. Senate,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Leader Schumer: On behalf of the more than 140,000 
     members of the National

[[Page S5641]]

     Association of Home Builders (NAHB), I want to convey our 
     strong support for the Tax Relief for American Families and 
     Workers Act of 2024 (H.R. 7024). Because this bill provides 
     much-needed additional resources to increase the supply of 
     affordable rental housing as well as provisions to encourage 
     small businesses to invest in their future, NAHB is 
     designating support for the Cloture Motion on H.R. 7024 as a 
     key vote.
       Tax relief and tax certainty are critical for small 
     businesses. Often overlooked is the fact that most home 
     builders are small businesses. The typical home builder is 
     building a median of 6 homes per year with a median of 5 
     employees on payroll. Restoring and extending 100% bonus 
     depreciation and expanding Section 179 expensing, along with 
     returning the EBITDA standard for interest deductibility, 
     will allow our members to invest more resources in 
     multifamily rental construction, in land development to build 
     more single-family homes, and in new equipment to expand 
     their businesses.
       NAHB also strongly supports the inclusion of additional 
     resources for the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC). 
     LIHTC is the most successful affordable rental housing 
     production program in U.S. history, but the demand for 
     affordable housing is acute and exceeds the availability of 
     financing through the LIHTC program. Without a program like 
     LIHTC, there's no financially feasible way to build 
     additional affordable rental housing for lower-income 
     households, which is why these additional resources are 
     urgently needed.
       To solve our country's housing affordability crisis, we 
     must increase production. This bill includes numerous 
     provisions to help us achieve that goal, and we urge the 
     Senate to act without further delay. Again, NAHB strongly 
     supports Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 
     2024 and has designated support for the Cloture Motion on 
     H.R. 7024 the Cloture Motion on H.R. 7024 as a key vote.
       Thank you for considering our views.
           Sincerely,
                                                  Lake A. Coulson.

  Ms. CANTWELL. I think that is an important organization that knows 
and understands how much affordable housing we need in America and how 
this underlying bill addresses that by building over 200,000 more 
affordable units in the next 2 years.
  It really is a shot in the arm at a time when Americans know that the 
cost of their housing has gone up because we haven't built enough 
supply. And as my colleagues know, especially since the downturn of the 
financial crisis in 2008, that from big cities to actually small towns, 
the crunch of a lack of a housing supply has meant an increase in 
costs. That means it hurts the economy overall. Last month, the 
skyrocketing costs were the largest contributor to the 3 percent rate 
of inflation.
  So that is why we have an opportunity to do something about that 
tomorrow. We have the opportunity to do something about the rising 
costs of housing and to pass this legislation that will build more 
supply and bring down those costs.
  Now, I know our colleagues--this is a very bipartisan aspect of the 
legislation. They know that expanding supply works. A 2019 study by the 
DC Office of Revenue Analysis found that renters basically saved $177 
per month for every 2,100 units built in the city per year. So, 
literally, you can do the math. When you don't build supply, you are 
just making everybody else's expenses go up.
  So why aren't we building more supply? Well, I can tell you that the 
low-income housing tax credits are a real achievement in bipartisan 
efforts to build more supply. It basically is the best tool to build 
affordable housing. It expands and improves, just as I mentioned from 
the National Association of Home Builders--``LIHTC is the most 
successful affordable rental housing production program in U.S. 
history.''
  That is why it is so important that we remember this analysis.
  A New York study found that for every 10 percent increase in housing 
supply, nearby rents decrease by 1 percent. Yet our colleagues don't 
want to build more supply.
  And for LIHTC properties specifically, new data from Moody's 
Analytics found that, with these low-income housing projects, the 
renters in the Seattle area saved a remarkable $957 per month compared 
to the average rents in the region.
  Now, I could go on and on with my colleagues about why we got into 
this position--certainly, the downturn of 2008 and when we stopped 
building more supply. We did have returning veterans who needed 
workforce housing. We had workforce housing overall in a community like 
Seattle, but it doesn't matter. Yakima or Spokane, it is the same 
dilemma. If you are not building affordable housing, people don't have 
places to live, and it stymies the economy moving forward. But we have 
had seniors living longer. We have had other issues that have made the 
need for housing a national priority.
  So we want to hear what our colleagues say about this very important 
attack on inflation--most of it derived from housing--and study and 
analysis that says we will lower costs if we just build supply.
  Tomorrow, we have a chance to build that supply. I hope my colleagues 
will join us in passing this legislation and driving down costs for 
Americans.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I thank my colleague for her good work.
  Senator Casey and Senator Brown have been two champions of the child 
tax credit. Let's start with Senator Casey.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.
  Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I am grateful to be here on the floor today 
and to join with our colleague from Oregon who has led this fight as 
the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee to bring us to this moment 
where we have the chance to vote on a bipartisan bill.
  I will mention what happened in the House in a couple of minutes. But 
this bill addresses some of our long-term challenges. One of them is 
addressing our low-income housing shortage.
  The bill also enables our businesses to continue to invest in 
research, development, and manufacturing. The bill eliminates 
fraud. The bill eliminates fraud. The bill reduces the deficit. For me, 
most importantly, it invests in America's children by expanding the 
child tax credit.

  That is why groups from across the spectrum have lined up to endorse 
the bill. Groups like the National Association of Manufacturers, the 
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Children's Defense 
Fund, and so many other groups support this bill that will grow our 
economy, reduce poverty, and reduce the deficit.
  The House overwhelmingly passed this bill by a vote of 357 to 70. 
That happened back in January. So now we are hoping for a similar 
result in the U.S. Senate. I hope the Senate, in a similar bipartisan 
fashion, will pass this bill.
  We know that, for example, just with regard to one provision in this 
bill, the child tax credit provision--in 2021, Democrats passed the 
American Rescue Plan, which had as one of its features an enhanced 
version of the child tax credit. I have often said we took the child 
tax credit in 2021 and we turbocharged it to help families in a much 
more substantial way. By passing that legislation in 2021, for 6 
months--and only 6 months, unfortunately, but for 6 months--we cut 
child poverty in half, according to the Census Bureau.
  So after all the years of work, decades of work to reduce child 
poverty, helping to set the stage for that reduction in child poverty, 
in 2021, we finally--finally--found the solution to substantially 
reducing childhood poverty and giving our children freedom from 
poverty. That solution was the child tax credit, in addition to other 
investments in children.
  I want to thank Senator Brown, my colleague from Ohio, who is seated 
next to me here today, for his years of work on this, laboring in the 
vineyards long before this was popular and long before it had a chance 
to pass. I want to thank his work and Chairman Wyden's work to bring us 
to this moment.
  I am one of eight children. My parents had eight children. I am right 
in the middle. I often think about how difficult it was for Mom and Dad 
to raise that many children. My mother passed away last August, August 
of 2023. We will be coming up on August 11, the 1-year anniversary of 
her passing. I was thinking today, what if my mother was not only the 
mother of eight children, but what if she didn't have a husband or what 
if we didn't have a household income that allowed us to be economically 
secure? We never went without food or went without a meal. We never had 
to worry about that in my life. But what if that wasn't the case? What 
would my life have been like if my mother faced the same challenges 
that so many families face today? We had the full measure of economic 
security when I was growing up.

[[Page S5642]]

  So back in October of 2021, after we had passed the American Rescue 
Plan, which contained that enhanced child tax credit, I met another 
mother in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania, in the southeastern corner 
of our State. This was a mom also of eight children, just like my 
mother, but she was a single mom. She gave us a sense of what it meant 
to have that child tax credit in place.
  Her name was Crystal. She said that the extra child tax credit 
payments gave her the ability to spend more time with her children and 
to allow her children to do more school activities for the first time. 
How do you put a price on that? How do you put a price on the 
opportunity a child has because their mom or their dad or the person 
taking care of them has a little extra money in a month--first of all, 
to buy food, which was often the No. 1 utilization of the child tax 
credit, the enhanced version of it, or to pay for rent or childcare or 
so many expenses of raising children?
  Why did it take us so long to finally say that raising children is 
really difficult and that we should give families a chance to do that 
in a more substantial way? Why is it that every time we have a tax 
debate in Washington, year after year--40 years now, by my 
recollection--every time we have a tax debate, the most powerful people 
in the country benefit disproportionately and the most powerful 
corporations on the planet Earth benefit disproportionately? Why is it 
that families raising children have always been left behind?
  We finally broke that cycle in 2021. The big guys got nothing from 
that. We finally said: You have had enough. It is time to help 
children, time to help those families raising children.
  But how do you put a price on a parent being able to pay for a school 
activity that child would benefit from? Maybe they have a chance to 
join a math club or to join a science club or to play a sport or to be 
in the band--whatever it is. How do you put a price on that--that lost 
opportunity because a mom or a dad or someone taking care of that child 
didn't have an extra $100 or whatever it cost to pay the fee to be in 
that school activity? How do you put a price on having a couple of 
hundred dollars more a month to pay for food? It is incalculable.
  But we know that because of what we did in 2021, we began--just by 
way of one step, but we began to change substantially the trajectory of 
these children's lives, millions of them, tens and tens of millions 
across the country. We have a chance to do that again in a similar 
fashion--not exactly how we did it in 2021 but in a similar fashion. 
This bill doesn't fully revive the version of the child tax credit that 
we enacted in 2021. We should do that next year when we have a big tax 
debate in 2025. In my judgment, the most important tax bill of our 
lifetime is coming up in 2025.
  This bipartisan bill we are trying to get passed will make millions 
of children more economically secure, more secure--closer to what my 
family had when we were growing up. This year, it will give benefits to 
16 million American children whose families are either in poverty or 
near poverty--half a million just in Pennsylvania, half a million 
children who are in poverty or near poverty in Pennsylvania. For 
example, a single parent with two kids who earns $22,000 a year as a 
childcare worker would gain $675 this year. How do you put a price on 
that, the benefit to that family just in this year?
  Research shows that when the child tax credit was expanded in 2021, 
families used that money on essentials like food and housing and 
clothes and so much else. In 2021, those payments lowered the distress 
that a lot of families felt, that parents felt, especially among single 
mothers. No mother should have to worry about how she will put food on 
the table. My mother never had that worry even though she had eight 
children. She never had that worry because of our circumstances. No 
mother should be concerned about or burdened by worrying about buying 
her kids new clothes for school or keeping a roof over their heads.
  We have the power in one vote to move this bill forward and enact it 
into law to help millions of children and millions of families across 
the country. I encourage all of our colleagues in both parties to stand 
with those children, stand with those families, and vote yes on this 
tax bill.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. WYDEN. Senator Casey, one of the things that I most appreciate 
about the Senator's services, when we bring up a bill, you invariably 
say: What does it mean for the kids who are hurting? We thank you for 
it.
  Senator Brown.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I particularly appreciate the moral 
leadership of Senator Casey. As Senator Wyden just said, he always 
posts questions: How does this affect family? How does this affect 
children?
  He knows it from his experience, and he knows it--as he travels the 
State of Pennsylvania, from Philadelphia to the Ohio border, he talks 
to a lot of families and children and sees what this means.
  Senator Casey, thank you.
  It seems like, listening to my colleagues--Senator Cantwell, Senator 
Casey, and Chairman Wyden--everybody not in DC is for this bill. It is 
a bunch of insiders here in this city--it is interest groups that are 
always looking for a handout. As Senator Casey said, so many of these 
interest groups get great tax advantages for themselves and maybe a few 
crumbs for others.
  The interest groups that are always looking for tax cuts for the rich 
and for their large corporate interests frankly have too much influence 
in this body. Fortunately, in the House of Representatives, they 
overcame that, and they passed this bill with 357 votes. This ought to 
pass close to unanimously here because it really is helpful. It helps 
business, and it helps families. But it is still a struggle, and it 
should be easy.
  I remember sitting on the floor on March 6, 2021, and I remember 
voting on this bill. It was on a bigger bill, but it had the child tax 
credit that Senator Wyden and others had helped to write. Senator 
Bennet played a big role and a couple of newcomers. Senator Warnock 
played a role. Senator Booker also played a role, but he was not a 
newcomer. Senator Warnock had been sworn in a couple of months earlier. 
I said to Senator Casey, who sits next to me, as he just said--I 
remember saying ``This is the best day in my career'' because we were 
about to pass the expanded child tax credit. I knew what it meant. Most 
of us knew what it meant. It passed 51 to 50. Unfortunately, for 
reasons I still don't entirely understand, it was a partisan vote. The 
Vice President came in and broke the tie. It passed 51 to 50.
  Immediately after this passed--the President signed it soon after--I 
called Secretary Yellen, the Secretary of the Treasury. I said: We have 
to get this up and running.
  By July, checks went out to the families of 2 million children in 
Ohio. Checks went out to the families of 60 million children around the 
country. As Senator Casey said, the child poverty rate dropped almost 
in half by September. Think about that. But then that tax break expired 
for reasons I won't go into here. But it tells you--I hear these 
numbers. I hear people say that the child poverty tax rate dropped by 
50 percent. I hear people say, as Senator Casey said, that it means 
people can afford school fees for their kids. It means daycare is more 
available, good quality daycare.
  It is a lot of statistics, and that is really important--these 60 
million children and 2 million in my State--but it is the individual 
stories we hear from families. After we passed this, people saw what it 
meant. We got letters. I got letters from Ashtabula, to Cincinnati, to 
Toledo, to Gallipolis, to Athens, to Lyons, OH, about what it meant for 
their individual families--probably more mothers than fathers but 
mothers and fathers--what it meant to these families, how they just had 
a burden lifted. It wasn't just the lowest income families. Families 
who are solidly middle class or even who are upper middle class could 
just do a few more things for their children. So the question is, How 
do you put a price on this, as Senator Casey said? How do you put a 
price on doing this when it made such a difference?
  Let me talk a little more about the bill, if I could. We had 
something called the lookback provision, allowing parents to use the 
previous year's income to make sure they get the maximum possible tax 
cut. Senator Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, and I worked 
together on this.

[[Page S5643]]

  It is the same option--interestingly, it is the same option that 
corporations have in the Tax Code. They are allowed to look back to 
reduce their taxes, but we weren't going to do that for families. I 
mean, that is the illness of this place. That is the sickness of 
Washington. It is why people, frankly, why they hate Washington. We 
treat these big corporate interests not even the same as we--maybe we 
ought to treat kids the same as we treat corporate interests because we 
treat corporate interests with kid gloves and always give them too 
much, and kids don't get enough. Families don't get enough.
  So it is important that we pass this. It is going to matter. We will 
come back next year, and we do it in a bigger way than the way we did 
last year.
  It also has some provisions that are major priorities for American 
companies. I want to encourage companies that will produce in the 
United States and will do their research and development here, that 
will keep the intellectual property in the United States.
  I had a meeting once at the White House. Senator Wyden was there. I 
think probably Senator Bennet was there at this meeting. It happened 
when President Trump was considering what we were going to do with the 
major tax bill.
  We had a bill called the Patriot Corporation Act that said simply 
this--I had the bill in my hand. It simply said that if an American 
company pays good wages and provides good healthcare and provides a 
retirement, they would get a lower tax rate. But if this company didn't 
pay good wages, so workers got food stamps and workers got Medicaid and 
workers got housing tax breaks--housing breaks--if the company wasn't 
paying good enough wages and the taxpayers had to step up, they paid 
another rate.
  In other words, if companies do the right thing, we ought to give 
them tax breaks. If companies mistreat their employees and undermine 
the dignity of work, we shouldn't. It is really pretty simple.
  This bill does it right. It is a bill with good bipartisan support in 
the House, passing with 357 votes, thanks to the very adept negotiating 
skills of both Chairman Wyden of the Finance Committee of the Senate, 
Chairman Smith of the Ways and Means Committee in the House, one 
Republican, one Democrat. We have got 169 Republicans, 188 Democrats. 
It is our work. This shouldn't be about politics; it should be about 
the people whom we serve.
  You fight for people in this country who make this country work. We 
should come together and cut taxes for working families. We should cut 
taxes for companies that want to do production in intellectual property 
in this country.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, before he leaves, I just want to say one of 
the most powerful things Senator Brown often says on the Finance 
Committee is: Whose side are you on? And Senator Brown always is on the 
side of communities where everybody has a chance to get ahead--not just 
the people at the top, the small businesses and the kids and the 
working families. And we so appreciate that leadership.
  Next is Senator Whitehouse, and not only is he a valued Member of the 
Finance Committee, but he uses the Budget Committee to focus on these 
kind of priorities, and we appreciate that.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, first of all, let me congratulate 
Senator Brown and Senator Casey and all the work they put into this 
effort and Chairman Wyden for his negotiation to where we are right 
now.
  This is a big deal for Rhode Island. We actually tried the child tax 
credit during COVID. We know how it works. It helped 174,000 Rhode 
Island families through COVID, and what we saw is that it lifted many 
of them out of poverty, and what else we saw is that it enabled parents 
to get into the workforce.
  There is a phony narrative that if you give the child tax credit to 
families, they will just avoid work. Our experience was the opposite. 
Once you had child tax credit revenues and you could afford, for 
instance, childcare for your kid, then you could go to work. And, of 
course, we needed a workforce through COVID, so people were paying 
attention to this, and that was our experience. This is a pro-child and 
pro-work tax credit.
  Now, you think it would be an easy slam dunk over here because it 
came through the House with a big bipartisan vote and the corporate 
benefits included in this bill far exceed the family benefits included 
in this bill. So you would think our Republican friends who are all 
about corporate tax benefits would be saying, hey, 3 to 1, 4 to 1, 
whatever the ratio is, we won this one big, let's close the deal; I 
support this even though it is a little bit out of balance. The Budget 
Committee did the work that showed the imbalance problem. We can always 
go back and solve the balance problem later. Families can't wait for 
the child tax credit. This really matters.
  I support this deal, and I also support having a memory as we go 
forward and as we further decorrupt our Tax Code about how to bring 
that better into balance. It ain't forever. The child tax credit is the 
key here. I will only add that the low-income housing tax credit that 
is in here as well is extremely important. It is very important to 
Rhode Island. We have a housing crisis in Rhode Island. We have exactly 
zero of our municipalities left in which it is affordable for the 
average family to be able to own a home. And we have one--one--in which 
it is affordable to be able to rent a home.
  So we have a lot of work to do, and the low-income housing tax credit 
is a huge lift that allows our very experts and very able housing 
community to build more and revamp more and produce more housing to 
meet the needs and quell the crisis.
  So I will close by thanking Chairman Wyden for his leadership and his 
skilled negotiations that have gotten us to this point. And I hope that 
common sense, what is good for children, what is good for work, and 
what is good for the corporate sector can prevail here in the Senate.
  (Ms. CORTEZ MASTO assumed the Chair.)
  Mr. WYDEN. Senator Whitehouse, thank you very much for your comments, 
particularly if you are talking about the immediacy of what is in this 
bill. I have had small businesses come to me--I am sure Senator Hassan 
has, too--and they say, look, if this is put off until 2025, you guys 
might have your debate then, I won't even be around to see it because I 
won't field any payroll and I won't have that R&D money.
  Senator Bennet has been in this fight since day one, has really 
dedicated his public service to kids.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Colorado.
  Mr. BENNET. I want to thank the Presiding Officer who has been such a 
champion on all these texts, the Senator from Nevada, and the Senator 
from New Hampshire as well, for bringing together people from both 
sides of the aisle to work on this. And you, Mr. Chairman, for your 
steadfast leadership over many, many years.
  And I am not going to give everybody a long history lesson here, but 
you want to know why our politics are so messed up, what feels like we 
are having these incredible, disagreeable disagreements and divisions 
and all of this in our politics, I believe there is one fundamental 
reason for it, and I think that fundamental reason is that people in 
America have lost a sense of having economic mobility for themselves 
and their families.
  You know, the whole idea of the American dream was that, if you work 
hard enough, that your kids were going to do better than you did and 
that your grandkids were going to do better than they did. And that has 
been lost. It is not irrecoverable, but there are so many families in 
Colorado, in Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon, that are going through the 
same stuff that people all over America are going through, which is 
they are working harder than ever before and they are bringing less 
home.
  And more of the benefit has been going, for years and years and 
years, to the people at the very top. That is the result of a real 
philosophical approach to how to run an economy, which is called 
trickle-down economics or supply side economics; it was something that 
Ronald Reagan led here. But I have to say this: There are Democrats and 
Republicans who supported those tendencies for a long time, and the 
result of that is that, today, the bottom

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half of Americans in our economy have less wealth than they did in 1980 
when Ronald Reagan was President.
  We are the first generation of Americans, the people in this Senate, 
that are actually leaving less opportunity, not more, to our kids and 
our grandkids. That has never happened before in American history. Half 
the people that are in their 30s today are earning less than their 
parents did.
  And I heard my colleague from Rhode Island talking about housing in 
Rhode Island. You can say exactly the same thing in Colorado. There is 
not a single place in Colorado where people think they can afford 
housing--because they can't.
  There is no workforce housing left, as you and I have discussed in 
the State of Colorado or the State of Oregon. And all of that is a 
preface to saying finally--finally--we have a bill in front of us that 
doesn't just cut taxes for the biggest corporations and the wealthiest 
people in the country, but actually cuts taxes for working people. And 
amazingly, as has been said, amazingly, it got 357 votes in the House. 
I know the chairman is fond of saying you couldn't get that kind of a 
majority vote for--what?
  Mr. WYDEN. Apple pie.
  Mr. BENNET. Apple pie. Or who is your favorite, you know, celebrity. 
And yet they were able to come together over there in the House of 
Representatives and pass a bill with 357 freaking votes.
  So we are going to put this on the floor. There is a lot of debate 
going on right now about was this party for kids or that party--I 
assume everybody is for kids. I assume that everybody, given the 
opportunity to vote for a piece of legislation that has that number of 
votes, that does not just the important work this does for the child 
tax credit, but also does important work on the research and 
development tax credit that my colleague from New Hampshire has been 
such a leader on, that when we get it here, we will actually all vote 
for it.
  And then I hope we come back next year and do the work we really need 
to do with the child tax credit, which is to once again show that we do 
not have to accept, as a permanent feature of our economy or a 
permanent feature of democracy, the disgraceful and immoral levels of 
childhood poverty we have in this country, that we know--because 
President Biden put it in place several years ago--that we have a tool, 
the child tax credit, that will actually lift half the American 
children out of poverty and give them a fighting chance to contribute 
to our democracy and to our economy.
  This is one important step in that process. I urge everybody in this 
Chamber to vote yes this week on this bill because this will be your 
opportunity, before we go home, to demonstrate where we stand on behalf 
of the American people and their families.
  Mr. WYDEN. Senator Bennet, you have been leading on these issues for 
a long time, and I want to take special note of a message for tomorrow. 
We have all been reading the press and the discussion about what is 
going on, sometimes thousands of miles from here, and there is a debate 
about who is for kids. I want everybody to remember what Senator Bennet 
said: Tomorrow, every single Senator can be for the kids. That is going 
to be our message for tomorrow.
  And by the way, our next speaker, our colleague from New Hampshire 
really shows her support for that proposition because she has been a 
champ on small business issues, and as we went into these debates, she 
pointed out, folks, we better be for the kids because kids who have an 
opportunity can be better workers down the road, and at every step of 
the way, she championed both kids and small businesses.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Hampshire.
  Ms. HASSAN. Thank you very much, Chairman Wyden.
  Madam President, I rise to join my colleagues in urging Members from 
both parties to come together and pass the bipartisan Wyden-Smith 
package to lower taxes for working families and for small businesses.
  And I want to add my thanks to my colleague from Colorado for his 
remarks because this really is about making sure that our families and 
small businesses can get ahead and stay ahead.
  As you know, earlier this year, Members from both parties in the 
House overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan package to cut taxes. Like any 
legislative compromise, it may not have included everything that people 
wanted, but it included commonsense provisions that a majority of 
Americans agree on. And as my colleague from Colorado and the chairman 
have just said, it has provisions that not only the majority of 
Americans agree on, but a significant, really large, outsized majority 
of the U.S. House of Representatives agreed on.
  This bipartisan package to cut taxes includes provisions that would 
help keep our economy on the cutting edge by fully restoring critical 
research and development--R&D--deductions. This provision would give 
American creators and entrepreneurs the resources that they need to 
outcompete countries like China and help ensure that our country and 
our economy is second to none. I have been working on a bipartisan 
basis to pass this provision and have heard from small businesses in 
New Hampshire about the really tough financial decisions that they are 
making now that the full R&D deduction has expired.
  Not only would this tax cut package help us build a more innovative 
economy, it also helps make our economy work better for everyone 
through a bipartisan expansion of the child tax credit. We know that 
families are still struggling with the burdens of high costs. Expanding 
the child tax credit is a commonsense, practical way to put more money 
back into the pockets of hard-working families.
  And this child tax credit provision would have helped families who 
have the most children, the families who, because of their higher 
number of children, have the most costs. There is a reason that a 
majority of Americans support these proposals. It is because they are 
good ideas that will make a difference in people's lives.
  But despite what our constituents are telling us in support of this 
legislation, despite the good-faith bipartisan discussions that we have 
had, and despite the fact that the House was able to come together to 
overwhelmingly pass this bill, we still don't have an agreement on how 
to advance the bipartisan tax cut package this week. Unfortunately, 
some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have seemingly 
allowed partisan politics to interfere with good-faith efforts to find 
a path forward.
  Despite this setback, I am going to continue to work across party 
lines to pass the provisions of this bipartisan tax cut package. And I 
urge my colleagues to reconsider and come together to pass this 
legislation when it comes to a vote tomorrow.
  I understand that for some of my colleagues, this bipartisan tax cut 
package doesn't have everything that they might want, but we would be 
ill-advised to miss this window.
  We have the opportunity to lower taxes for the American people now. 
Hard-working families struggling to keep up with high costs, they 
aren't asking to expand the child tax credit a couple of years down the 
line. They want tax cuts so that they can keep more money in their 
pockets now.
  If we are serious about outcompeting China, we can't afford to simply 
hope that we pass legislation restoring the R&D tax credit in the 
future. No, we need to give American innovators, creators, and 
entrepreneurs the support that they need now. For many small 
businesses, even waiting another year will be too late, because, 
ultimately, the American people aren't asking for perfect legislation, 
nor do they care if an idea is red or blue. They care about results, 
and they don't want politics to get in the way of a good idea.
  So I urge my colleagues to come together and support this bipartisan 
tax cut package that will strengthen our economy, support our 
entrepreneurs, deliver for American families, and demonstrate that we 
can accomplish great things when we work together.
  Thank you, Madam President.
  Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, what we have heard from our friend from 
New Hampshire is: It is time for results, not just rhetoric.
  Our last speaker will be Senator Padilla, our friend from the West.
  Senator Padilla.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.

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  Mr. PADILLA. Madam President, I, too, rise today in support of every 
parent across the country working multiple jobs to help put food on the 
table, parents who are now buying school supplies and clothes as their 
kids are preparing to go back to school, parents who are working hard 
just to afford basic childcare. I rise in support of every American, 
including many in my home State of California, who are struggling to 
find housing that they can afford. And I rise today for every 
constituent of mine wondering why Senate Republicans continue to block 
a bill that passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in the House of 
Representatives, because we know that the policies included in this 
measure are, indeed, bipartisan.
  In the bipartisan Wyden-Smith tax proposal, these measures are not 
controversial. We know that they are actually effective because we have 
seen them work. In 2021, we saw an expanded child tax credit cut the 
rate of child poverty in our Nation in half to historic lows.
  We also saw a 12\1/2\-percent increase in the low-income housing tax 
credit allocation help finance the construction of affordable housing--
affordable housing that in communities across California and across the 
country are so desperately needed.
  So let's just kind of simplify this conversation here. We know these 
policies can work. We know these policies have worked. We know that 
letting them expire has been detrimental to so many parents, so many 
children, and so many communities across the country. And we have, 
today, an opportunity to do right by them once again.
  This past week, the Park fire and other wildfires continuing to burn 
in California have burned hundreds of thousands of acres. But in 
addition to that, they have reawakened painful memories of some of the 
worst wildfires in California history, many just in the last decade. So 
I also want to spend a moment to highlight what the disaster assistance 
provisions of this bill would mean for many, many families in my State.
  Now, earlier this month, the Los Angeles Times told a story of Ria 
Abernathy, a 55-year-old woman living in Butte County in Northern 
California. Six years ago, Ria experienced devastation that most 
Americans couldn't even dream of but to which many Californians have 
grown all too familiar.
  On one morning in November of 2018, Ria woke up to see black smoke 
engulfing the land around her, flames moving so fast that, within 
hours, the entire town of Paradise, CA, would be nothing but embers.
  Fortunately, Ria acted quickly, and she was able to flee safely. But 
in order to save her life, she had to sacrifice all of her possessions. 
In what would become the deadliest wildfire in California history, the 
Camp fire went on to burn everything that Ria owned, and it leveled the 
town around her, and it claimed 85 lives--all because of a failed piece 
of equipment from a transmission tower that ignited the fire.
  So for 8 months, Ria was forced to find shelter in a trailer, 
alongside others, along with a lot of her neighbors displaced by this 
same fire, living in the parking lot of a local church as they began 
the long, emotional path to rebuilding.
  And while she was eventually awarded an $80,000 legal settlement, her 
troubles were far from over. It turned out that Ria would owe taxes on 
the settlement that she recovered. And that year, Ria says--she shares 
in the Times:

       I lost my whole history . . . and it's not coming back.

  But as devastating as Ria's story is, she is not alone. Over 70,000 
Californians have been impacted by the destruction of the Butte fire, 
the North Bay fire, and the Camp fire.
  Now, when a fire victim is wading through the ashes of their former 
home and thinking about how to rebuild--not just their homes but their 
lives--the last thing that wildfire victims should have to worry about 
is how they are going to pay taxes on any settlement they receive.
  Disaster settlement funds are not income. Disaster settlement funds 
are not assets. It is compensation for what they have lost--and 
insufficient most of the time at that. But disaster settlement funds 
are also meant to be an opportunity to begin to rebuild your life, an 
opportunity that should not be diminished because our government tax 
codes are outdated.
  So I was proud to see that the Wyden-Smith tax package includes my 
bill, the Protect Innocent Victims of Taxation After Fire Act. It would 
make sure that people who have suffered from a heartbreaking wildfire 
can receive full compensation for their losses, without the fear that 
their settlements will be subject to taxes.
  And it is not just for my constituents in California looking to 
rebuild. This bill would make sure that all recent and future wildfire 
victims throughout the country have access to their full settlements.
  It is a commonsense, bipartisan solution to protect Americans at, 
arguably, the most difficult point in their lives. And for that reason, 
along with the historic provisions included in the package to make life 
more affordable for working families, I urge my Republican colleagues 
to join me in supporting this bill.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, I thank my colleague. And Senator Cornyn 
said I could take a second to add on.
  I think my colleague from California has made a central point. In the 
West, in particular, we want to make sure that those who have been 
clobbered by these fires don't get clobbered again by an outdated tax 
code. So I am strongly in support of Senator Padilla's work.
  We have an opportunity to get it on the books tomorrow, if it passes. 
Tomorrow, it goes to the President and gets signed into law.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.