Tensions boiled over in the Senate early Sunday as members clashed in a marathon overnight vote over a proposal offered by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to restore the party’s expanded child tax credit.
Sanders proposed an amendment to revive the extended credit, which expired at the end of last year, as part of the Democrats’ sweeping tax, health care and climate bill, called the Inflation Reduction Act. But the Vermont Independent was the only one to support the revision, as it ultimately failed by a 1-97 vote.
The vote came as the Senate huddled for the hours-long vote, one of the last key hurdles Democrats must clear to secure passage of their massive bill. During the often grueling, protracted voting session, each senator has the chance to force a vote on the amendment.
In remarks before Sunday’s vote, Sanders said the amendment aims to bring back a temporary credit expansion that was passed in the US bailout, a sweeping coronavirus relief package passed by Democrats last year.
“Unfortunately, the United States has the highest child poverty rate of almost any major country on Earth, and it is particularly high among people of color,” Sanders said. “This is the richest nation on Earth, we shouldn’t have the highest child poverty rate of almost any country.”
“America’s bailout included a $300 monthly child tax credit that ended up reducing America’s child poverty rate by more than 40 percent,” Sanders added, noting that his amendment would restore the expanded credit for four years and “would be completely paid for by a refund of the top corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent.
Sanders’ move drew immediate backlash from Democrats ahead of the vote on the amendment, who expressed support for the child tax credit provision on its own but stressed they could not support the change in an effort to protect the final passage of the full package.
“Sen. Sanders is right, the child tax credit is one of the most important things this body has done. It reduced the child poverty rate by 40 percent almost immediately,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who has long advocated renewing the extended credit. But he urged his colleagues not to vote on the amendment to avoid the “bill” being cut.
Sen. Michael Bennett (D-Colo.) struck a similar note, pledging to work with his colleagues to advance the provision but arguing that it should not be moved to the climate, tax and health care bills.
“We have to fight to make this enhanced child tax credit permanent, and that’s what I’m going to do with people on both sides of the aisle.” But that doesn’t advance that cause because we could lose the main bill and therefore have to vote against the amendment,” the Colorado Democrat said.
But Sanders seemed unsatisfied with his colleagues’ positions. He fired back at Brown, asking why passing the amendment or allowing 48 Democrats to vote for it would defeat the bill.
The Ohio Democrat pointed to the tenuous nature of passing legislation through a budget reconciliation in an evenly divided Senate, which requires all Democrats to sign on to the bill before it can clear the chamber. If the amendment is added to the bill, it could put final passage in jeopardy by dissuading a member from supporting the overall legislation.
Ahead of the weekend’s marathon debate, a number of Democrats have vowed to vote against any amendments introduced on the floor — even if they agree with the premise of the change — to preserve the bill’s chances of passage.
“The catch on this is that all 50 Democrats support this. We know that every single Republican voted against the child tax credit not once last March, but twice, but we know that this is a fragile deal and we have to pass it, as much as I wish we could, as Senator Bennet would Brown said.
At the end of his remarks, the senator could be heard saying, “Come on, Bernie.”
The amendment was one of several ambitious proposals Sanders floated early Sunday, all of which were soundly defeated. He raised them hours after criticizing the Democrats’ Deflation Act for not going far enough on key issues such as health care, child care and housing.
Sanders also proposed measures aimed at ensuring that Medicare does not pay more for prescription drugs than the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and expanding Medicare coverage to include dental, oral, hearing and vision benefits as potential changes in the package.
The VA-related revision failed on a 1-99 vote, with Sanders the only member to vote in favor. Sanders’ proposed Medicare expansion amendment failed 3-97 after Sens. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), who faces a tough re-election campaign in November, and Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) joined the Progressive Party in Vermont by voting for it.
Sanders also introduced an amendment to create a Citizen Climate Corps, though the amendment failed on a 1-98 vote.
The Sanders amendments came as no surprise, as the senator has repeatedly expressed his frustration with the Deflation Act, which is drastically scaled back from the Democrats’ previous Build Better Recovery Act, which the Vermont senator pushed hard to pass last year.
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Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (DN.Y.) announced a deal with Sen. Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) on the smaller bill in late July, months after negotiations over the larger plan broke down over centrist opposition from West Virginia.
In remarks before Saturday’s vote, Sanders aired a list of complaints about the watered-down bill, which he said “doesn’t address the reality that we have more income and wealth inequality today than at any time in the world in the last hundred years.”
“This bill does nothing to address the systemic dysfunctionality of America’s health care system,” he added, while criticizing the bill for not doing more to address the nation’s child poverty rates or the “great housing crisis.”
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