WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri believes he has found a way forward for the stalled tax code that would temporarily expand the child tax credit and restore corporate tax breaks that have expired or are expiring under the 2017 tax law.
Hawley’s idea is to attach the radiation compensation bill to the tax bill to entice his fellow party members to pass it through the upper house – including leading tax author and radiation compensation advocate, Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho. The House of Representatives has already passed the tax package with overwhelming bipartisan support.
“I think if they want to postpone the tax bill, I would say put RECA on the tax bill and postpone them together. I think you can get 60 [votes] for that. I would try it. I think other people would vote for it. To be candid, if that doesn’t happen, it’s tough to see a path forward,” Hawley told States Newsroom and a tiny group of reporters on Tuesday.
Hawley’s RECA Suggestion would prolong the expiry Compensation Fund for victims of previous government radiation and atomic bomb tests in the St. Louis area and the western and southwestern United States
Senators voted for it of the bill in March, 69-30.
Asked by States Newsroom whether the proposal – first reported by Punchbowl News – had gained traction, Hawley said he had “talked to several senators about it and what my position is.”
“Look, I don’t control the ground. So it’s not my decision. But I’m just saying that if they want to pass this bill, I can only control my own vote, but I would vote for it,” he said.
Senate GOP opposition to tax bill
Some Senate Republicans refuse to support it Tax bill on a Democratic proposal to allow taxpayers to claim the child tax credit even if they had no annual income the previous year – a “review” Provision that they compare to the expansion of welfare.
Several also oppose a provision that would phase in the credit at a faster pace, thereby increasing the amount parents could receive in reimbursement.
Crapo, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee and lead Senate Republican negotiator on the tax bill, did so championed Compensation for victims of government radiation exposure.
The Idaho Republicans invited guest President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address in March included Tona Henderson, leader of the Idaho Downwinders in Emmett, Idaho, a group that Supporter as compensation for Idahoans affected by federal nuclear weapons testing in the 1950s and 1960s.
A spokesman for the Senate Finance Committee said Crapo had no comment on Hawley’s idea.
A steadfast Opponent Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who oversees the tax bill, said Hawley’s proposal does nothing to change his position.
“You’re talking about the tax bill that I oppose?” he said when asked by the state’s newsroom on Tuesday whether the addition of RECA would change his mind. “NO.”
Sen. Ron Wyden, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and an original sponsor of the tax bill, said he had not yet been briefed on the proposal, which also needs to pass the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
“But you know, when I hear U.S. senators, especially Republicans, saying that they care about families and small businesses and keeping a roof over people’s heads, I think that’s a good thing,” the Oregon Democrat said .
Wyden said he was interested in “approaches that add voices, not subtract them.”
What Republicans want to do — strip the bill of the retroactive child tax credit provision — would anger the bill’s Democratic sponsors, Wyden said.
“What has been offered so far by Senate Republicans would not get a single Democratic vote, and the sponsors know that.”
