Rubio warns tax conference committee on child tax credit

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Friday warned the House-Senate tax conference committee that there would be “problems” if they bump up the corporate tax rate above 20 percent but don’t further expand the child tax credit.

“If #TaxReform conference weakens #ChildTaxCredit OR reduce corp cut but don’t make CTC refundable for working families, going to be problems,” Rubio tweeted.

Rubio’s tweet comes as Republicans weigh increasing the final tax bill’s corporate rate above 20 percent. Doing so would be unpopular among many GOP lawmakers, conservatives and business groups, but could help to raise revenue to help pay for other tax cuts.

A decision to adjust the corporate rate would come from the conference committee, which is expected to meet in the near future to reconcile the House and Senate tax bills.

Rubio and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) have been pushing for a more robust child tax credit for years. During the debate over the Senate bill last week, the pair offered an amendment that would have made the credit refundable against payroll taxes. But the amendment was shot down in part because it was paid for by ticking up the corporate rate.

Rubio and Lee are continuing to push for boosting the child tax credit. Earlier in the week, the Senate approved a motion from Rubio to instruct the conference committee to expand the the credit to at least $2,000 and have it benefit more low-wage parents. The Senate bill would increase the credit to $2,000, while the House bill would only increase it to $1,600.