"Mr. Speaker, today is Day Five of the House Republican Leadership’s campaign to kill the extension of the child tax credit.
"The issue is very simple: The Senate has passed the child tax credit. The President says he will sign it. 12 million children in America need it. But the House Republicans want to kill it.
"The Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee says there is not enough time to meet in conference with the Senate. That reveals his true intent -- he does not want this bill to become law.
"A conference with the Senate could take just five minutes. The House Republicans could simply stop their delaying tactics and accept the Senate bill in the House-Senate conference.
"The conference report would be quickly approved by each house and sent to the President, who has said he would sign it.
"But let us be clear: the House Republicans do not want this bill to become law. In the 12 days since the Senate passed its bill by a vote of 94 to 2 on June 5 -- a strong, bipartisan vote of 94 to 2, the Republican majority in the House has voted six times not to accept the Senate bill.
"Instead, the Republicans voted to send a bloated $82 billion bill to conference, which they know the Senate will not accept. It is not paid for. It is reckless. It is irresponsible.
"The Republicans Leadership in the House simply does not want to expand the child tax credit, which corrects the unfair omission of nearly 12 million children, including nearly 250,000 children of our active duty military personnel.
"Mr. Speaker, we are here because our constituents have entrusted us with serious responsibility. We have a responsibility to our veterans and our military, to make sure that we honor their sacrifices and to be true to the resolutions that we make honoring them here in the House, almost on a daily basis. That is appropriate, to honor them, to respect their patriotism, their courage, and to recognize the sacrifice they are willing to make for our country.
"How then can we say to them that their children are not worthy of this extension of the tax credit?
"And we have a responsibility to our parents and grandparents, to improve and strengthen the Medicare program they know and trust. And we have a responsibility to future generations, to leave them with a country that is even better and stronger and more secure than the one we inherited from our parents.
"Providing the child tax credit to working and military families is not something that we 'don't have time for.' If children are a priority for us, then we make them a priority and that means we have time for them. It is not something that we can cavalierly shrug off with phrases like 'It ain't going to happen,' to quote the Republican Majority Leader.
"It is not something that we should only consider if 'we get something for it,' to quote another of my Republican colleagues.
"This is a central question of fairness, and of responsibility to the children in 6.5 million families who are waiting, still waiting, for us to fulfill a promise we made to them.
"We're saying to those children, 'Wait until next year.' Or, 'The check isn't in the mail.' Whatever it is, it's bad news if you're a family working full-time but do not make over $26,000 a year. And it's bad news for children of the military.
"These working and military families pay taxes just like everyone else and are struggling to make ends meet in today’s stagnant economy.
"On behalf of the families of 12 million children now waiting for this tax relief, we must correct this callous omission as quickly as possible.
"The Senate child tax credit is supported by Democrats and some rank-and-file Republicans in the House. And it would immediately provide the tax credit to millions of working and military families left out of the final tax cut bill approved last month.
"We can pass the bipartisan legislation and send it to the President today.
"It's interesting, after the vote on the tax credit last week, where the Republicans' reckless and callous policy prevailed, that on the motion to instruct that followed 12 Republicans joined the Democrats on a motion to instruct the conferees to take up the Senate bill.
"We did that because we know we can invest in our children, or we can indebt them. That is the choice that the Republicans have put before us.
"Mr. Speaker, President Kennedy said: 'Children are our greatest resource and our best hope for the future.'
"I urge my Republican colleagues to do the right thing and accept the Senate bill, and in doing so, support the value that we place on our children. We cannot say that some children are our greatest resource and best hope for the future but not if your parents make the minimum wage or they are risking their lives on active duty in the military. We want to recognize our children as our messengers to a future most of us will never see.
"We want them to take forward a message of respect for all children in our country. We want to show them that they really are our greatest resource and our best hope for the future. There is no excuse, Mr. Speaker, for the Republican majority not to go immediately to conference and send this bill back to the House for approval and to the President's desk before the end of the month, so that every child in America can take advantage of the child tax credit."
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