WASHINGTON — Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri thinks he has found a way to stop work on a tax bill that would temporarily expand the child tax credit and restore business tax breaks that expired or were made redundant under the 2017 tax law.
Hawley’s idea is to attach the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to the tax bill to encourage his party colleagues to push it through the upper chamber — including the tax’s lead author and radiation compensation advocate, Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho. The chamber has already passed the tax package with overwhelming bipartisan support.
“I think if they want to move the tax bill, I would say add RECA to the tax bill and move them together. I think you can get 60 (votes) for that. I would do that. I think other people would vote for that. It’s hard to see a path if that doesn’t happen, honestly,” Hawley told States Newsroom and a compact group of reporters Tuesday.
Hawley’s RECA application would extend the expiring Compensation Fund for victims of previous government radiological and atomic bomb tests in the St. Louis area and the western and southwestern United States
Senators voted for the draft 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 a number of senators about it and what my position is.”
“Look, I don’t control the vote. So it’s not my decision. But I’m just saying, if they want to move this bill… I can only control my vote, but I would vote for it,” he said.
Senate Republican Party Opposition to Tax Bill
Some Republican senators refuse to support tax bill on Democrats’ proposal to allow taxpayers to receive the child tax credit even if they had no annual income in the previous year — a “retrospective” a provision that is compared to expanding social welfare.
Some also oppose a provision that would speed up the granting of the relief, thereby increasing the amount parents could receive in refunds.
Crapo, a member of the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Republican Party’s lead negotiator on the tax bill, promoted compensation for victims of radiation exposure from the government.
Republican from Idaho invited President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address in March featured Tony Henderson, head of the Idaho Downwinders in Emmett, Idaho, a group that advocates to obtain compensation for Idaho residents who suffered as a result of government nuclear weapons testing in the 1950s and 1960s.
A Senate Finance Committee spokesman said Crapo had no comment on Hawley’s idea.
Steadfast opponent tax bill, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said Hawley’s proposal does not change his position.
“You’re talking about tax legislation that I oppose?” he said when States Newsroom asked him Tuesday whether including RECA would change his mind. “No.”
Senator Ron Wyden, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and the original sponsor of the tax bill, said he had not yet been briefed on the proposal, which would also have to pass the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
“But you know, when I hear United States senators, particularly Republicans, say they are interested in families and small businesses and keeping people housed, I think that is a good thing,” the Oregon Democrat said.
Wyden said he was interested in “approaches that add votes, not subtract them.”
Wyden said what Republicans want to do—stripping several provisions that expand the child tax credit—would discourage Democratic supporters.
“What Senate Republicans have proposed so far would not get a single Democratic vote, and its sponsors know it.”
Wyden said what Republicans want to do — stripping the bill of several provisions that expand the child tax credit — would discourage Democratic supporters.
“What Senate Republicans have proposed so far would not get a single Democratic vote, and its sponsors know it.”
Worsening state debt?
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan budget watchdog, criticized Hawley’s proposal Tuesday afternoon, saying it could turn the tax legislation “into a fiscally reckless bill by adding additional, unpaid expenses.”
“Despite its flaws, the House has conducted an important exercise in keeping the costs of its bill low and ensuring that they are fully reimbursed. Adding $50 billion in borrowing to that would undo all the progress made in that effort,” CRFB President Maya MacGuineas said in a statement.
The $78 billion bill negotiated by Wyden and Republican Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri, the top tax writer in the House of Representatives, offsets the costs by ending a pandemic-era tax break for businesses that was rife with fraud.
“Of course we need to make sure that victims of radiation exposure are adequately compensated. But their grandchildren should not have to foot the bill,” MacGuineas said in a statement.
“We are approaching a turning point in our country’s history where the national debt will exceed its share of the economy, the interest on that debt will be higher than what we spend on national defense or Medicare, and a number of important priorities will test our ability to keep borrowing.”
