DeLauro Blasts Decision to Pay for TAA by Cutting Child Tax Credit

NEW HAVEN, CT—Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) released the following statement today on the decision to pay for part of the Trade Adjustment Assistance legislation introduced Friday by cutting the Child Tax Credit.

“The Child Tax Credit supports millions of vulnerable infants and children. Any changes made to the credit that generate savings should be put right back into making the credit stronger and better able to help working families. We should not be making it harder for people to support their families. Once again, the House Majority is showing their preference for multinational corporations over working American families.

“The very act of introducing Trade Adjustment Assistance alongside Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) concedes an important point: fast-tracking the Trans-Pacific Partnership will kill American jobs and depress wages. That one question should be our guiding light as we debate TPA in the coming weeks. This bill’s supporters know that, and that is why they quietly introduced this bill on Friday, hoping nobody would notice. It is why I cannot support TPA and why I urge my colleagues to oppose it. TAA should not be offset on the backs of children.”

DeLauro is the author of the Child Tax Credit Permanency Act, which would make permanent the CTC expansion that began in the Recovery Act and was extended in the American Taxpayer Relief Act. It would also index the value of the CTC to inflation to stem the erosion of the credit.


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