A few weeks ago, I got a panicked message from Jason Cohen, a dad in upstate New York. He told me that the day care where his twin toddlers had been happily ensconced for over a year, J.A.C.E. Daycare and Early Learning Center in Wappingers Falls, was closing unexpectedly and had given parents less than two weeks’ notice and no clear explanation. But Mid Hudson News reported that the center was “suffering extreme financial stress and defaulted on a major loan.”

The families of more than a quarter of all children living in rural America would benefit from a proposed expansion of  the Child Tax Credit that has passed the U.S. House of Representatives and is now under consideration in the Senate.

The House voted Wednesday night to pass a $78 billion tax package that includes an expansion of the child tax credit, sending it to the Senate, where its path is uncertain.

The Republican-led House passed the bipartisan measure 357-70, using a fast-track process that requires a two-thirds majority. The legislation received broad support from each party: 169 Republicans and 188 Democrats voted for it, while 47 Republicans and 23 Democrats voted against it.

The House passed a $78 billion tax bill on Wednesday that boosts the child tax credit and reinstates business deductions that were rescinded during the Trump administration, sending the bipartisan, bicameral legislation to the Senate for consideration.

The chamber cleared the measure, dubbed the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act, in an overwhelmingly bipartisan 357-70 vote.

House Republicans on Tuesday evening mulled a compromise that would pair state and local tax relief with a conservative policy priority as a possible solution for an impasse between tax writers, blue-state Republicans and the House Freedom Caucus. 

One idea under consideration would be to move a second tax bill in parallel with the $78 billion family and business tax cut deal negotiated by Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., and Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

A deal to reduce taxes for businesses and increase the child tax credit (CTC) made it out of the House Ways and Means Committee with broad bipartisan support Friday.

The tax deal advanced with 40 votes in favor and only three opposed.

A last-minute substitution amendment to the $79 billion tax bill tweaked it slightly, bringing its total savings to $399 million from $262 million over the 10-year budget window, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT).

Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden and House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith unveiled a roughly $78 billion tax deal Tuesday that would revive a trio of business tax credits, expand the child tax credit and boost low-income housing. 

Wyden, D-Ore., and Smith, R-Mo., aim to pass the tax package before Jan. 29 to avoid disruptions to filing season. The two will need to shore up support amid criticism of the deal from the right and left and find a legislative vehicle for the measure.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill struck a $70 billion bipartisan deal Tuesday to boost child tax credits and cut taxes for corporations, marking a rare agreement across party lines on contentious policy issues in an election year.

The legislation will be retroactive, covering three calendar years — 2023 through 2025 — and primarily benefit lower-income families who currently earn too little to claim full credits, and those with multiple children.

Top Democrats and Republicans in Congress on Tuesday released a $78 billion compromise they have reached to expand the child tax credit and restore three popular expired business tax breaks, but the package faces a challenging road to enactment in an election year.