DeLauro Vows Child Tax Credit Fight

New Haven U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro isn’t done fighting for a child tax credit.

DeLauro promised on Thursday to mount a new effort to revive the federal $3,000 to $3,600-per-kid annual tax credit when Congress resumes. As the influential chair of the House Appropriations Committee, she vowed to insist that any extension of a business-requested research and development (R&D) tax credit be accompanied by an extension and expansion of the child tax credit.

DeLauro spent 18 years championing the tax credit until she succeeded in 2021 in having it included in the federal pandemic-relief American Rescue Plan. It was the signature achievement of her career.

Then Democrats failed to muster enough votes to renew the credit, and it expired.

DeLauro made the promise during a press conference held at the Montessori pre-school on Edgewood Avenue in the Dwight neighborhood. She highlighted the impact the tax credit had in helping families afford child care, food, rent payments, and health care.

It was the second press conference in two days in which Democrat DeLauro, who’s running for election this coming Tuesday to a 17th two-year term, has sought to offer alternative messaging to the successful Republican framing of campaign discourse about inflation. On Wednesday, she addressed gas prices by calling for a windfall profits tax and other measures against oil companies she accused of gouging. (Read about that here.)

State Early Childhood Commissioner Beth Bye and officials from food banks, the United Way, and an early childhood education coalition spoke at the press conference about how they saw the tax credit lift the economic fortunes and quality of life of families in the state.

DeLauro was asked about the political headwinds she faces in pressing for reviving the credit. Republicans have argued that pandemic-era spending on programs like the tax credit caused the inflation that now plagues families.

Broader factors ranging from Russia’s war on Ukraine to the pandemic to price-gouging by food and oil companies have caused inflation, she responded. She presented the child tax credit as the best way to help working families wrestle with rising prices ​“by putting money back in people’s pockets.”

She noted that in its brief 2021 existence, the credit coincided with the largest drop (around 50 percent) in child poverty and and household hunger (26 percent) in generations.

She also took aim at Congressional colleagues who suggested that families would spend tax credit money on drugs or other misuses. Research showed that in fact the money went toward child care, food, school supplies, transportation, health bills, and rent and mortgage payments. She also said no drop in employment coincided with receipt of the tax credit payments.

“The way we demonized people who struggle is just outrageous,” she stated. ​“To say folks would not go to work is outrageous. The evidence is overwhelming how parents and families spent this money.”.

Justin Paglino, the Green Party candidate running against DeLauro, said he agrees with her position on making the child tax credit (CTC) permanent.

“The increase in CTC payments, passed in March 2020 and expiring in December 2021, was so effective a weapon against poverty that after it expired, nearly four million American children fell back into poverty, raising the rate of poverty among American children overnight from 12.1 percent in December to 17 percent in January 2022,” Paglino noted in a comment emailed to the Independent. ​“In a country with a 17 percent child poverty rate, where the bottom 50 percent own 2 percent of the wealth, it is clear we are not doing enough to fight child poverty, or poverty in general.

“Where Rep. DeLauro and I disagree is that I contend that for America to wage an effective war on poverty, it is absolutely necessary that we stop spending over $800 billion dollars a year on our capacity to wage traditional wars, a capacity that is far more than adequate. In November 2020, New Haveners voted on a ballot resolution asking ​‘Should Congress prepare for health and human climate crises by transferring funds from the military budget to cities for human needs, jobs, and an environmentally sustainable economy?’ Eighty-three percent voted yes. Rep. DeLauro’s annual ​‘aye’ votes for the overblown military budget have become predictable, and are a real and direct obstacle to our ability to wage an effective war on poverty.”

Independent Party candidate Amy Chai also came out in support of the tax credit while arguing it doesn’t go far enough. In her case, that ​“wise” ​“evidence-based spending” along with more tax cuts — such as eliminating the self-employed 15 percent FICA tax bracket.

“This amount is punishing for self-employed persons who do not have benefits such as healthcare or 401K from an employer. I would cap individual FICA tax payments at 7.5 percent,” Chai wrote in an email message to the Independent. ​“Second, I would shift the tax burden off the backs of the working people by moving a significant portion of tax revenue away from earned income (labor) and placing it on the financial industry. The playing field is not level for people who earn their income from traditional work compared to persons who earn their income from financial instruments such as derivatives.”

Republican challenger Lesley DeNardis did not respond to a request for comment by the publication time of this article.