Child Tax Credit Improvement Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition against this cruel half-measure by the House Republican majority.

The bill is a boon for upper middle class families, but failing to extend the child tax credit expansion for lower-income families means 12 million Americans will be plunged deeper in poverty. That includes six million children, infants, and toddlers. It also includes 400,000 veterans and members of the armed services, men and women who are giving their lives and sacrificing their families for this Nation.

Yesterday, in an article, Bob Woodson, the president of the Center For Neighborhood Enterprise and, I might add, a mentor for Chairman Paul Ryan, my Republican colleague, he told The Wall Street Journal that we cannot and should not--and this is a quote--``should not generalize about poor people. There are the deserving poor, and there are the undeserving poor.''

I ask my colleagues on the other side of the aisle in this Republican majority, you tell me which are the infants and the toddlers who are the deserving poor and those infants and toddlers who are the undeserving poor?

This is not right. I have always been a strong supporter of the child tax credit. Research has shown that this sort of income support for parents, it boosts employment, increases earnings and income, reduces poverty, and improves kids' school performance.

I have worked hard to pass the expansion of the child tax credit in the recovery act.

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