House expands child tax credit bill

WASHINGTON -- House Republican leaders ignored White House pressure for quick passage of a Senate bill to expand child tax credits for low-income families and scheduled a vote on a package that also would give bigger tax cuts to high-income couples and members of the armed forces.

Majority Leader Tom DeLay said Tuesday the House will use the Senate's bill, which would send rebate checks of up to $400 per child to 6.5 million low-income families this summer, as a vehicle for language to make tax cuts President Bush signed last month less temporary.

"If they want the child tax credit, they ought to be able to have it in a package that actually creates jobs and helps the economy grow," said DeLay, R-Texas. He said the expanded Senate bill will come before the House on Thursday. After passage, it would have to return to the Senate.

Asked about DeLay's comments, the White House stuck to its position that President Bush wants to see the child tax credit passed without other cuts attached.

"The president thinks it's a good idea to pass the legislation," said spokeswoman Claire Buchan.

Low-income families

The House vote will be on an $82 billion package that, like the Senate's, expands the child tax credit for low-income families. Low-wage workers who make between $10,500 and $27,000 could claim a refund worth 15 percent of their income over $10,500.

House Republicans want to extend the full benefit also to married couples who make up to $150,000. The benefit currently starts to disappear for couples that make $110,000 or more.

The House also would keep the child tax credit at $1,000 through 2010. Under both the Senate bill and the tax cut Bush signed last month, the credit would fall to $700 in 2006. In addition, the House Republicans want to wrap in some new tax breaks for military personnel.

The House's top tax writer, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, said the package makes long-term improvements to family tax benefits, not temporary changes to quell a political uproar. He pointed out that Sen. Blanche Lincoln, the Arkansas Democrat pushing hardest for the expansion, faces re-election next year.

"Politics is always cheaper than policy," he said.

Moderate Republicans and Democrats forced the Senate to offset the cost of its much smaller $10 billion bill with an extension of customs fees. To keep the cost down, the Senate bill does not extend the $1,000 child credit past 2006, and it gives higher-income married couples the child benefit only in 2010.

House Republican leaders will present the tax plan to rank-and-file members Wednesday morning. House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said he expected both conservative and moderate lawmakers to back the tax cut.

Moderate Rep. Michael Castle, R-Del., said he would like to support more tax cuts, but not at the expense of a bigger deficit. "It's a question of what we can afford," he said.

The uproar over the child tax credit started only after Bush signed the $330 billion tax cut on May 28. That law delivers advance refunds with up to $400 per child this summer to middle-income families. Families that earn between $10,500 and less than $27,000 were cut out of the payments because their tax level is too low to qualify.

The omission provoked an outcry from Democrats and community groups. The Children's Defense Fund plans to march hundreds of mothers pushing children in strollers to DeLay's office on Thursday to pressure him to put child credit legislation on the floor.

A top Democrat predicted the Senate measure would move through the House unchanged once Republicans realize the depth of the public's outrage.

"I think it will happen as soon as their pollsters start telling them that, hey, the American public is getting uptight," said House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md.

DeLay said Republican tax cuts have relieved many low-income families from paying taxes. "What we are interested in is real solid tax relief for those that are paying taxes," he said.