WASHINGTON – Sen. Michael Bennet introduced a bill last week to nearly permanently expand the child tax credit and allow it to grow with inflation in the coming years.
The bill – the American Family Act – is the latest effort in his nearly decade-long push to expand the child tax credit.
The bill would permanently expand the child tax credit from $2,000 per child to $6,360 for newborns, $4,320 for children ages 1 through 6, and $3,600 for children ages 6 through 17. It would index the credit with inflation to ensure it does not shrink in value over time.
The bill would also enable monthly delivery of the credit and allow low-income families to receive the same value of the credit as those above the threshold. Currently, those above the threshold receive the full credit while those below it receive only a partial credit.
The Center on Poverty and Social Progress estimates that nationally as many as 25% – 17 million – of the nation’s children aren’t eligible for the full credit because their families’ incomes aren’t high enough to qualify. The Center estimates about 20% – 222,000 of Colorado’s children – to be ineligible for the full credit.
Still, opponents of expanding the CTC have worried that expanding the credit decreases the work incentive.
The bill would need to muster 60 votes to clear the Senate filibuster. Given that Democrats hold only 47 seats in the Senate, it is unlikely to pass this session.
Bennet, who declared his run for Colorado governor on Friday, seemed to indicate to Politico that he is losing faith in the Senate’s ability to effectively legislate when Republicans are often beholden to President Donald Trump’s plans.
Bennet led a news conference with other Democrats last week at the Capitol, referencing his time as superintendent of Denver Public Schools and declaring “there is not a more important tax policy that we can pursue.”
Democrats at the news conference slammed Republicans’ ideas about trickle-down economics and framed the issue as a choice between supporting Republican-backed tax cuts that skew toward the wealthy or the Democrat-backed tax cuts for families with children.
“Everywhere I go in Colorado I meet parents who are working hard, who are working two and three jobs just to scrape by,” he said. “And like many Americans across the country, they are wrestling with the legacy of 50 years of trickle-down economics that has benefited the wealthiest Americans while leaving middle class families behind.”
Bennet repeated his frequent comparison of the tax cuts Republicans are pursuing in budget resolutions to a mayor investing in only the wealthiest neighborhoods in their city.
The Democrats also pointed to the success of the 2021 expansion of the CTC, which Bennet authored in the American Rescue Plan. That expansion helped cut child poverty to a record low of 5.2% in 2021 – nearly half of the 9.7% it was in 2020 – according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Bennet called the 2021 expanded CTC “the best investment we’ve made in children and working families in generations”
“As my colleague Sen. (Cory) Booker from New Jersey said, there is nothing inevitable about the levels of childhood poverty we have” he added. “That’s a choice we’ve made. We proved in 2021 we don’t have to accept it as a permanent feature of our democracy or a permanent feature of our economy.”
Since 2015, Bennet has introduced several different expansions of the CTC.
Most recently, in August 2024, a tax bill that included an expansion of the CTC failed in the Senate, despite having received broad bipartisan support months earlier in the House. That provision would have increased the refundable portion of the CTC and would have allowed parents of multiple children to collect a credit for each child.
Democrats knew the bill was doomed to fail but called a vote on it before Congress’ five-week recess anyway. The vote was timely with the issue of how to best support families also being salient in the presidential race.
Bennet called Republicans unwillingness to pass the bill “shameful.”
Now, with Democrats in the minority in both chambers, Bennet said he thinks public pressure is “the only thing that will change their minds.”
“We have choices to make right now in America right now,” Bennet said. “This is a moral moment as Rev. (Raphael) Warnock said – the senator from Georgia. We’re making moral choices, and our view is we don’t want to leave America’s children behind as we make those choices. And I hope there will be Republicans who come to see the benefit in that.”
Kathryn Squyres is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a student at American University in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at ksquyres@durangoherald.com.
