Democrats are feeling an increased sense of urgency to quickly get President Biden’s social spending and climate package across the finish line due to the pending expiration of the expanded child tax credit at the end of the year, The Hill reported. Absent congressional action, the IRS will make its last monthly child tax credit payment on Dec. 15. Democrats see the monthly payments as critical to reducing child poverty and want to prevent a lapse. The key obstacle is Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who has expressed a reluctance to passing the social spending package this year. Despite Manchin’s hesitancy, key Democrats are insistent that the expanded child tax credit won’t expire. “We are not going to have a lapse in payments. That’s too important,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). The $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief law that Biden enacted in March expanded the child tax credit for 2021. The expansion included an increase in the credit amount and monthly advance payments of the credit and allowed the lowest-income families to be eligible for the full credit amount. The Treasury Department and IRS in July started sending out monthly advance child tax credit payments of up to $300 for each child under age 6 and up to $250 for each child ages 6 to 17. The monthly payments, which allow families to receive funds in installments rather than in a lump sum when they file their tax returns, are currently set to end this month.
