Wyden Calls on Republicans to Support Tax Cuts for Families and Children, Affordable Housing, Small Businesses

July 31,2024

Wyden Calls on Republicans to Support Tax Cuts for Families and Children, Affordable Housing, Small Businesses

As Prepared for Delivery

If I started the work day with the opportunity to help 16 million kids from low-income families … make us more competitive with China … build affordable housing for hundreds of thousands of Americans … and pay for it all by cracking down on fraud … I'd consider that a good day at the office.

Tomorrow we're going to find out if Senate Republicans agree.

This vote tomorrow is more than six months in the making. In fact, I've been working on this bill for two years. The only reason this didn't get done long ago is delay on the part of Senate Republicans.

No more delay. It's time to vote. We're going to see where everybody stands.

I'm pleased to have several of my Democratic colleagues joining me here on the floor over the next 45 minutes or so, and I've promised them I won't put on a filibuster.

I just want to make a few key points about this legislation.

For starters, this bill was designed with balance in mind. For every dollar in tax cuts for businesses, JCT tells us that an equal amount goes to children and families.

And our focus is on families who are walking an economic tightrope, those that need help the most.

16 million kids will benefit from this bill. Half a million, lifted out of poverty. That's a big accomplishment.

Particularly for bigger families of modest incomes, families with two, three, four kids, this would be a game changer. Under the current rules, most of the time those families only get a single child tax credit regardless of how many kids they have.

Think about that. The law tells these struggling families -- you may have three or four kids, but you've gotta get by splitting a single child tax credit. Three or four kids can't split a pair of shoes. Three or four kids can't split a single meal. It's a matter of economic discrimination. It needs to end.

There's been a lot of discussion over the last few days about who's really looking out for families in America. My view is, that's going to become clear when the Senate votes tomorrow. We'll see who's on the side of these families that need more help -- these families who are facing economic discrimination today.

On our side, I know Democrats want to end the discrimination and get these families the assistance they need. As for Republicans, we'll see.

And there's a lot more in this bill that ought to bring the two sides together. For example, it would build 200,000 new affordable housing units. The lack of affordable housing is a nationwide crisis today. It's not just blue states and cities. It's nearly everywhere. On housing, you can call me a supply-sider. We've got to build, build, build. 200,000 new units is only a down payment on the housing our country needs, but it's important.

This bill would invest in R&D and help us outcompete China economically. Changes Republicans made to the tax code back in 2017 slashed the value of the tax incentive for R&D. It's worth only 20 percent of what it used to be. Republicans have been going around for seven years now telling everybody they were going to fix it, but they haven't gotten it done. Here's their opportunity.

According to data from the Treasury Department, four million small businesses could benefit from this bill. Many of those are small businesses and start-ups that invest heavily in R&D. Many of them operate in fields where our economy competes directly with China and other countries around the world. They're counting on Congress to act.

The bill would also provide important relief to families and businesses that are hit by disasters like mega-storms and mega-wildfires. That's particularly important to people out in Oregon where there are already big fires burning this year.

The icing on the cake is that this bill is paid for by cracking down on fraud. It would shut down a pandemic era tax program, the Employee Retention Tax Credit, that actually expired three years ago -- but fraudulent claims are still pouring in all these years later.

Congress needs to put a stop to it. It's a firehose of fraud. This is our chance.

The IRS is telling us that it's a nightmare trying to sort out the legitimate claims from the fraudulent and improper ones. But if Congress passes this bill, their job gets a lot easier. We've got to get this done.

I'll close on this, and I'm looking forward to hearing what my Democratic colleagues have to say. There's going to be a lot of debate today and tomorrow.

This bill got 357 votes in the House. Nearly an even split between Democrats and Republicans. Left-leaning groups want it. Right-leaning groups want it. Family organizations. Faith-based organizations. Pro-life. Pro-choice. All over the spectrum.

Senate Republicans talk a lot about their desire to act on these issues. Help for families. Help for innovative small businesses. Building housing. Preventing fraud.

Well now's the time. The Senate's voting tomorrow. We'll see where they stand.

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