After President Donald Trump took office in 2017, he and I worked hand-in-hand to put together a tax reform bill that would put American workers, families, farmers, and small businesses first. What we came up with was the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), landmark legislation that led to a nearly 5% increase in wages for American workers, a full 1% increase in economic growth over the average of the previous decade, and the lowest unemployment and poverty rates in 50 years.
Unfortunately, some of the key provisions in TCJA that helped create the strongest economy in my lifetime have phased out or have already expired. That’s why, as Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee – the chief tax writing committee in Congress – I authored the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act: a pro-growth, pro-family, and pro-America tax package that builds on the success of TCJA and, just like that landmark legislation, puts workers, families, farmers, and small businesses first.
One of the bill’s most important provisions for families is the child tax credit (CTC). The Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act enhances the CTC by growing the benefit to reflect the higher prices families are paying today and eliminating an existing penalty on large working families to ensure each child is treated the same. Under current law, low- and middle-income taxpayers with multiple children are often unable to claim the full credit. In this legislation, a Missouri family with three children making minimum wage would be eligible for a $5,400 CTC, which is the maximum amount per child. If the CTC is left unchanged, that same family would only be eligible for $3,462.60. The CTC is a proven, simple, straight-forward solution to help families take care of their kids by putting more of Americans’ hard-earned money back in their pockets.
