U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-Pennsylvania) said he was “encouraged” by the progress of negotiations in Congress on the child tax credit bill, but expressed some uncertainty about the possibility of a deal.
Bipartisan, Bicameral Tax Bill released on Tuesday Senator Ron Wyden (Democrat of Oregon) and Representative Jason Smith (Republican of Missouri) would like to gradually enhance the child tax credit through 2025 and restore the tax credit for public housing projects.
“That doesn’t mean it’s a done deal and it’s going to be passed, but I think the fact is they’ve made a lot of progress,” Casey told the Capital-Star.
The three-year bill also provides a waiver of compensation fees for wildfire victims and those who suffered losses as a result of the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
Casey said this modern agreement could prove to be significant progress for children.
“We finally found a way to dramatically reduce child poverty by strengthening the child tax credit,” Casey said.
The credit, which was part of the American Rescue Plan, raised the amount of money families received — from $2,000 to $3,600 for a child under 6 and $3,000 for other children — and gave it in monthly checks. The credit helped lower the U.S. child poverty rate to a record low, but it expired in 2021.
Casey said another area where families will benefit is the Biden administration’s plan to lower prescription drug prices by allowing Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies.
The initiative was part of an inflation-reduction bill and was a key part of President Joe Biden’s reelection bid before voters. The president has regularly touted his administration’s efforts to rein in insulin costs for seniors and negotiate drug prices with manufacturers.
“Unfortunately, it’s like a bag of rocks hanging on everyone’s shoulders all day long,” Casey said of prescription drug costs. “And there’s no reason for that, other than the pharmaceutical companies didn’t want to make the reforms to bring prices down and they wanted to point fingers instead of bring those costs down.”
But the negotiated prices for Other drugs identified by the Biden administration will not enter into force before 2026, and at least one the pharmaceutical company sued to try to stop the program.
“I don’t think they’re going to be able to stop the bill from becoming law,” Casey told the Capital-Star. “There’s a tremendous amount of public interest in this bill, and that’s a tremendous amount of public pressure.”
And while potentially lower drug costs aren’t noticeable for two years under the current plan, Casey says it’s up to Democratic lawmakers to remind voters what they’re working on — especially those who, like him, are running for reelection.
“You can’t just pass a bill and say, ‘OK, everybody should be patient,’” he said. “I think once that becomes clearer to people, I think that will help tremendously not only with regard to their arrangements for 2024, but also what they can expect in 2025 and 2026. And that’s a strong predictor to expect more positive change after that.”
