Seven months since the House passed a bill that would have expanded the child tax credit, the Senate has killed it. In Thursday’s long-awaited conclusion to a debate that was supposed to have been settled by Tax Day, legislators sank a bipartisan bill that would have increased the child tax credit through the end of 2025 and extended more of its benefits to the nation’s poorest families. Although the vote was close, coming in at 48-44 largely split along party lines, the bill needed 60 votes to pass.

Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, and Rep. Jason T. Smith, a Republican from Missouri who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, crafted the deal at the start of the year and secured passage in the House on a 357-70 vote in the hopes of passing it before the start of tax season. But objections from Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee stalled the bill.

This week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer finally called a vote, in part to force Republicans to take a public stand on the bill ahead of the November election. Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, handed out pamphlets to Republican colleagues suggesting that voting in favor of the bill would “give Harris a win before the election.” He printed out fake checks made out to “millions of American voters” with the memo: “Don’t forget to vote for Kamala!”

Democrats were particularly watching how Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the GOP vice presidential candidate, would vote, but Vance was in Arizona visiting the U.S.-Mexico border and was among the eight senators who missed it. He spoke in support of the bill earlier this year saying it was “by and large good policy,” though he called Republican objections over some of its provisions “reasonable.”

Read the full article about child tax credits by Chabeli Carrazana at The 19th.