Washington, D.C. — Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today issued the following statement after Senate Republicans blocked debate on the Tax Relief for American Workers and Families Act:
“Sixteen million kids will be worse off and half a million will remain in poverty because Senate Republicans decided they’d rather wait around and hope Trump wins in November than take a bipartisan victory today. If anybody believes they blocked this bill to get a better deal for children and families down the road, Donald Trump has a casino to sell you.
“There’s always a lot of talk among Republicans about supporting families, competing with China, and cracking down on fraud in government programs, but they just rejected a bill that would accomplish all of that in one package.
“Senate Republicans had a seat at the negotiating table as we worked on this bill for seven months, and they stalled for another six after the House passed it with an overwhelming bipartisan vote in January. The goalposts kept moving, even after I offered to make changes to address what they said was their biggest issue with the bill. For any Senate Republicans to claim they were denied an opportunity to put their mark on it is absurd.
“There’s a major tax showdown on the horizon, a crisis Republicans manufactured when they scheduled much of Trump’s tax law to expire at the end of 2025. Senate Republicans have rejected the option of addressing it on a bipartisan basis. The good news is, the American people have an opportunity to choose who they want calling the shots when this crisis hits. Clearly Senate Republicans are in it for another round of multi-trillion dollar Trump handouts to the ultra-wealthy. Democrats, on the other hand, are going to fight for the kids and families and small businesses that Republicans turned their backs on today.”
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