More money for parents? Both sides could make it happen.

At a time when Democrats and Republicans in Congress can't seem to agree on almost anything, they could soon pass an expanded child tax credit that would provide money to parents.

The credit, part of a $78 billion tax package that the House could vote on this week, is the rare family policy with bipartisan support. It's not guaranteed to become law, but the new deal between Democrats and Republicans is part of a tax package with broad appeal across the ideological spectrum.

The biggest benefits from the child tax credit would be for the poorest families, analysts said: The payments could lift nearly half a million children out of poverty and reduce poverty for another five million. according to some estimates. Research has shown that families spend those extra dollars on food, childcare and other basic needs.

Still, it would reduce child poverty by only about 5 percent by 2025, compared with a temporary 35 percent reduction achieved by a larger expansion of child tax credits implemented during the pandemic, according to the Columbia University Center on Poverty and Social Policy.

“It's a pretty modest adjustment in the scheme of things,” said Patrick T. Brown, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative think tank. “But at the same time, it could pave the way for a broader conversation about what the purpose of the child tax credit is and how we can make it more possible for parents across the spectrum to raise a child.”

Here's how the proposal would work – and why politicians like it.

How does the child tax credit work now?

Under current law, families are eligible for this up to a $2,000 tax credit for each of their children. But not every family will get the full amount: those who don't work for pay (or have very high incomes) won't qualify, and others will get partial credit.

To qualify for the credit, families must earn at least $2,500 per year, and the size of the payment increases with family income. A single parent of one child must earn about $24,800 before qualifying for the full credit; a married couple with two children should earn about $35,700. This structure is intended to encourage poor parents to work and has been a key requirement for many Republican lawmakers.

What would the new child tax credit do?

The new proposal would keep that idea intact but increase payments to poor families who meet that minimum income threshold. It would also increase the maximum credit to $2,000 per child to keep up with inflation. And families would be able to choose between the current year's income or the previous year's income when calculating the size of the credit.

The new credit, which the authors hope to obtain in time for this year's tax filing season, would be temporary and expire at the end of 2025.

How would it help poor families?

In its first year, the new credit would reach an estimated 80 percent of families whose incomes are too low to receive the full amount now, including about 16 million children, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning research group. .

The legislation does this by increasing the amount that poor families can receive, especially families with multiple children. For example, single parents with three children earning $15,000 would receive three times as much in 2025 as they would under current law: $5,625 per year instead of $1,875.

During the pandemic, there was a much more generous one-year expansion of the child tax credit. The annual payment increased to as much as $3,600 per child, and the government sent this in the form of monthly checks. For the first time, it also went to families without an income. This expansion lifted 2.9 million children out of poverty in 2021, reducing child poverty the lowest rate ever recorded. But it expired at the end of that year, pushing many families back below the poverty line.

How did the idea gain bipartisan support?

Spending on policies that help families has traditionally been a Democratic priority. But this bill – introduced by Representative Jason Smith of Missouri, the Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee; and Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee — is written in a way that has led many Republicans to embrace it.

It is also part of a broader tax package reduces various taxes for companiesand won't add much to the deficit because it will end a pandemic-era business tax credit that has become a magnet for fraud.

In recent years, part of the Republican Party has begun to embrace government spending on certain family policies, driven by the movement of working-class voters to the Republican Party, and by concerns among lawmakers about declining fertility rates. It appeals to the values ​​of both parties, “both the anti-poverty left and the pro-family right,” Mr. Brown said.

Kristen Soltis Anderson, a founder of Echelon Insights, a Republican polling firm, said she had seen a growing consensus among voters in both parties on the need for family policies: “You have a lot of Republicans who are very concerned about young people saying, 'I don't think I want to have children,'” she said. “There is a culturally conservative fear around that.”

The sticking point for most Republicans had been an income requirement so that payments wouldn't go to parents who weren't working. The new bill has removed that obstacle.

Perhaps surprisingly, the bill has attracted some Democratic opposition — the main complaint being that it is not generous enough. Last week, the bill passed the Ways and Means Committee on a 40-3 vote. The three opponents were all Democrats.

What do voters think of an expanded child tax credit?

The idea is popular with voters across the ideological spectrum, although it does not have the support of a large majority. A study of 31 surveys on pandemic-era expansion found that on average six in ten likely voters supported it.

What happens now?

The House of Representatives can vote on the measure as early as this week. Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday that the bill would come up for a vote, and he expects it to pass with a large majority vote. If it passes there, it will go to the Senate, where the prospects for passage also appear good. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, hopes to bring the proposal to the floor, and several moderate Republicans have indicated they will support it.

Even if the bill were to become law, the additional benefits would end after 2025 — at which point the child tax credit would become even smaller than the amount parents receive today, up to a maximum benefit of $1,000 per child. That's because another tax credit law also expires in 2025.

Without a future bill, the child tax credit risks shrinking significantly.