"Thank you and good afternoon. I know you all rode a long way to get here. You should understand that the hopes of the children of America are riding on you. Thank you for making the trip to Washington D.C.
"It’s wonderful to be with all of you, especially to see so many young people here, voicing your support for the child tax credit. Rochelle Jackson, your family is the reason why we are here today. Thank you, Rochelle, for your wonderful remarks and for making the trip from Pennsylvania. Rochelle and more than six million families she represents won’t get the tax credit unless the House Republicans stop their delaying tactics and allow us to extend it.
"Rochelle, I promise you: Democrats will not stop fighting until we expand the child tax credit.
"Let’s take a moment for a few facts. The Children’s Defense Fund and the Center for Community Change are here to present their report of facts today. Thank you for carrying the message across America. The sad fact is that the Republican leadership in the House simply does not want to expand the child tax credit for the 12 million children, including 250,000 children of our active military duty personnel, that they left out. That’s immoral and it’s shameful.
"As the report states, these are the children of nurses, teacher’s aides, farmers, and soldiers to name a few. These people work hard to provide for their families, and they pay taxes. They do pay taxes. Does anybody here who pays payroll taxes think that that is not paying taxes? Or sales tax, that that’s not paying taxes? House Republicans simply do not care. They have thrown up roadblock after roadblock into the path of fairness.
"As we stand here today in the hot sun of Washington D.C., Democrats are in the heat of battle on the floor of the House using every weapon in our arsenal to disrupt the schedule and to force a vote on the child tax credit. My colleagues Charlie Rangel and Rosa DeLauro are holding down the fort on the House floor. We will continue to call the House Republicans to the floor, all day, time and time again, to remind them that the clock is ticking for the children of working and military families in America. We want the same treatment for them as other children in America.
"On Friday, the very day the tax credit checks will be sent to millions of Americans, Members of Congress plan to return to their districts for the August work period. Republican leaders are willing to go home without extending the tax credit.
"We will not allow Republican Members of Congress to put less of a value on the children of working families than they do on their own children and other children in America. I remind you that the working families make in one year what Members of Congress make in one month. And the Members of Congress’s children will be getting that tax credit and working families below a certain income will not. Is that fair?
"Today, the Democratic women in the House of Representatives signed Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky’s letter to President Bush calling on him to immediately intervene with the House Republicans and demand that they send the President the child tax credit before he leaves Washington tomorrow.
"The issue is simple. The Senate passed the child tax credit 49 days ago. The President said he would sign it. If he means it, then he will insist that the Republicans in the House of Representatives pass the bill and put it on his desk today."
###