[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 91 (Thursday, May 29, 2025)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E486]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 1, ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. ROSA L. DeLAURO

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 21, 2025

  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague and good friend, the 
Ranking Member of the Rules Committee Jim McGovern. He is a tireless 
fighter for working families and I am proud to be in that fight with 
him. I am glad to call out the egregious giveaway to billionaires and 
big corporations being orchestrated in this Republican tax bill.
  The $4.5 trillion--and counting, counting because we do not have the 
full CBO score as this bill is being jammed through the House--is what 
we are talking about. That is what Republicans are preparing to shower 
on the richest companies and their billionaire owners, while giving 
mere pennies to the middle class, working class, and vulnerable 
families who are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis.
  President Trump campaigned on lowering prices. He pledged to ``bring 
food costs down on day one.'' Instead, the opposite has happened. His 
own USDA recently reported egg prices could rise 41 percent over the 
next year. Since taking office, he has done nothing to help families.
  This is shameful, because the alternative is clear. A few weeks ago, 
I reintroduced the American Family Act, legislation to reinstate the 
improved, expanded Child Tax Credit. The American Family Act would 
create the strongest version of the tax credit ever, indexing the value 
of the credit to inflation, and it would establish a baby bonus to help 
families in that critical first year after birth.
  The data proves that the expanded Child Tax Credit that we passed in 
2021 delivered the greatest middle class tax cut in a generation, 
reaching nearly 36 million families--61 million children. It was the 
antidote to child poverty and to inflation. It gave real money back to 
millions of working families in the form of monthly checks, cutting 
child hunger by a fourth and bringing child poverty down to the lowest 
recorded levels in history.
  The watered-down imitation of a Child Tax Credit included in this 
bill will not continue this progress. I want to take this time to 
address a few misconceptions about the Child Tax Credit that have been 
present in this debate so far. According to the Columbia Center on 
Poverty and Social Policy, nearly one out of four children, 17 million 
children nationwide, are excluded from full credit because their family 
incomes are too low to qualify. This is not an issue of work 
requirements. The current version of the CTC functions as an income 
requirement, hurting families who work hard or are retired grandparents 
who are now caring for a second generation, but simply do not earn 
enough to qualify. Families with parents who work hard will be excluded 
because their wages are too meager. Are you truly saying that 
billionaires and corporations need tax breaks more than the youngest of 
your constituents? This bill would make that problem worse, not better.
  This bill pays lip service to the Child Tax Credit--I believe the 
American people need more than that.
  Our bill is the real deal. The improved, expanded Child Tax Credit 
fixes this problem. We need that now more than ever. Across the 
country, families are living paycheck to paycheck while prices for 
everyday goods and essential services, from eggs to gasoline to 
medicine and childcare, continue to rise.
  This should not be a partisan issue. Republicans like former Senator 
Mitt Romney, Senator Josh Hawley, and even Vice President J.D. Vance 
have supported the Child Tax Credit because the evidence that it helped 
families is so overwhelming.
  But Republican leadership in Congress has been clear: they want to 
give the corporate lobbyists everything they ask for and then some. 
They are gutting Medicaid, food stamps, and anything else that stands 
in the way of more money for billionaires.
  This bill is not responding to the cost-of-living crisis. This bill 
is pouring gasoline on the fire. My promise to American families is 
that I will fight as hard as I can, with every ally I can find, to stop 
this corrupt giveaway and focus on bringing down the cost of living 
through a proven policy, the expanded Child Tax Credit--not the meager 
substitute in this bill.

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