Idaho’s Crapo maintains key role in stalling federal child tax credit bill in Senate

A proposed law with ample bipartisan support in Congress that would grant as much as an annual $2,000 tax credit per child to working families remains held up because of the objection of Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo.

Crapo, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, has taken issue with a handful of provisions in the bill, titled the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act. It overwhelmingly passed the Republican-led House in January, but for months has gone without a vote in the Senate — where Democrats hold a one-vote advantage — because it lacks enough support to reach the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.

Earlier this year, Idaho Republican Reps. Russ Fulcher and Mike Simpson split their votes on the bill. Fulcher voted against it while Simpson supported the bill.

Crapo’s concerns, which have been echoed publicly by a handful of other Republican senators, primarily stems from rollout of the child tax credit. Much of the remainder of the $78 billion bill relates to tax breaks for small businesses — a Republican priority that led to a brokered deal on the Capitol.

“Sen. Crapo fully supports extending the pro-growth business provisions that encourage domestic investment, and also supports expanding the child tax credit to provide additional tax relief to working families,” Amanda Critchfield, Crapo’s Senate Finance Committee spokesperson, said in an email to the Idaho Statesman. “However, he has policy concerns with the current bill, as do other Republican members, and he has been clear that he would like to find a compromise that a majority of Republican senators can support.”

As a member of the U.S. House, Crapo supported the original child tax credit in 1997, which amounted to $400 per child. In the Senate in 2017, Crapo voted in favor of the law that temporarily upped the tax credit to $2,000.

A bipartisan group of Idaho Legislature members, including Senate Assistant Majority Leader Abby Lee, R-Fruitland, has urged Crapo to continue negotiations to reach an agreement on the child tax credit bill. Idaho Republican Gov. Brad Little’s office did not respond to a request whether he has a position on the bill.

Crapo largely seeks to eliminate a so-called “look-back” policy included in the bill that would allow workers to use a prior year’s income to gain a larger child tax credit. He has argued that such a provision amounts to entitlement spending rather than a tax break.

Senate Republicans have voiced concern that the higher subsidy allowed through the policy could incentivize people to leave the workforce. The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, as well as the nonprofit Tax Foundation and conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute and Americans for Tax Reform, have not found that would be the case.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, is chair of the Senate Finance Committee. He is leading the charge in the Senate effort to pass the bill, and said he has offered to replace the look-back policy with other measures that result in the same financial benefit to families.

So far, however, Wyden said Crapo has not shown a willingness to reach a deal. Even if the look-back policy is dropped from the bill, Crapo has not pledged to vote in favor, Wyden said in a statement last month.

“In March, Sen. Crapo sought changes that would have doomed the bill by slashing its impact on child poverty, something Sen. Wyden made clear he and other Democrats could not support,” Ryan Carey, Wyden’s Senate Finance Committee spokesperson, said in a written statement to the Statesman.

“Sen. Crapo would not commit to supporting the bill even if Sen. Wyden made those changes. Sen. Wyden offered to address Senate Republicans’ concerns by removing a provision dealing with child tax credit claims — their top stated objection to the bill — and putting in additional priorities that would attract Republican support. His offer remains on the table.”

For his part, Crapo has said barbs between the two Senate colleagues in neighboring states traded through the media will not affect their working relationship going forward, including on the child tax credit bill.

“We need to get into negotiations and find a resolution,” Crapo said last month in an interview with Idaho columnist Chuck Malloy. “I’m very open to negotiating a bill, if we get it right. As of now, the fixes that I believe need to be made to the bill are considered to be unacceptable to negotiate on from the other side, so we are at a standstill.”