{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.scott.senate.gov/media-center/press-releases/-how-marco-rubio-forced-the-gops-hand-on-the-child-tax-credit", "How Marco Rubio forced the GOPs hand on the child tax credit", "2017-12-15", "2017", "2017-12", "Republican", "House", "SC", "Tim Scott", "S001184", "www.scott.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Friday | December 15, 2017\n\t\t\t  How Marco Rubio forced the GOPs hand on the child tax credit \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWhen Sen. Marco Rubio told reporters on Thursday that he would vote no on a tax overhaul bill without an expanded child tax credit, many congressional staffers, political observers and lawmakers from both parties thought the Florida Republican was blowing hot air, looking to appear as though he had leverage when he did not.\r\nThere was also speculation that Rubio had, by the time he started making noise, already received assurances that his problems would be addressed.\r\nBut behind the scenes, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was worried.\r\nAn aide to a Senate Republican member of the tax conference committee told McClatchy that earlier in the week, days before Rubio publicly said he was on the fence about the legislation, Floridas junior senator paid a visit toMcConnell, a Kentucky Republican. Sen. Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina and a point person on final negotiations, accompanied them.\r\nIn that meeting with McConnell and Scott, Rubio made his position clear. He would vote againstthetax bill unless there was an expanded child tax credit that would net low-earners using the child tax credit a larger IRS refund if they owe little or no taxes.\r\nIf you dont fix this, Im no, the aide said Rubio told McConnell. And it was a very hard no.\r\nRubios threats to vote against the tax bill were very real, and leadership took them seriously.\r\nA second source involved in the negotiations confirmed the meeting and Rubios position.\r\nStill, House and Senate negotiators were reluctant to address Rubios demands. They had already agreed to a final deal on all elements of the tax overhaul legislation, in principle, and didnt want to reopen negotiations.\r\nScott, who had helped secure an initial expansion of the child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000 while the bill was still being debated by the Senate Finance Committee, lobbied on Rubios behalf inside the conference committee. An aide confirmed that Scott pushed conferees to continue negotiating throughout the day Thursday, culminating in the deal announced Friday.\r\nRubio had his own leverage to exert. Senate Republicans can only afford to lose three members and still pass their bill. Rubio and Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah, were both making their opinions known about the importance of expanding the child tax credit two weeks ago when the Senate was voting to advance its tax overhaul bill out of the chamber.\r\nThe two lawmakers even co-authored an amendment that would have expanded the child tax credit to $2,000 and made it fully refundable.It failed after other Republicans chafed at expanding the corporate tax rate from 20 percent to 20.94 percent to pay for the plan, but Rubio and Lee still played nice and voted in favor of the larger bill, giving leaders a sense that they would not take their fight further.\r\nBut then House and Senate negotiators proposed a 21 percent corporate tax rate to pay for a lower tax rate for high-earners, a higher corporate rate than Rubio proposed in his plan to give more money to lower- and middle-class families. And Rubio wasnt happy.\r\n20.94% Corp. rate to pay for tax cut for working family making $40k was anti-growth but 21% to cut tax for couples making $1million is fine? Rubio tweeted on Tuesday.\r\nWhile Lee never said he would vote no, his dissatisfaction was also worrisome to leadership. Rubio made his opposition public on Thursday, and the prospect of failure in the Senate caused the negotiators to act. The $2,000 child tax credits refundable portion was raised from $1,100 to $1,400.\r\nThe tradeoff was enough to get Rubios support.\r\nBy Friday afternoon, Rubio was thanking Scott for his help. Scott, in turn, thanked Rubio for fighting.\r\nFor months, Rubio said that an expanded child tax credit was an important part of any effort to overhaul the nations tax code. Without it, he said detractors could credibly argue that the Republican-led House and Senate drafted the overhaul without lower- and middle-class families in mind.\r\nIm not going to vote for an increase on the middle class, Rubio said in October. But were not going to get to that point. Were not that crazy around here.\r\nDemocrats are still expected to vote en masse against the Republican-led tax plan, but the last-ditch effort by McConnell and Scott to get Rubios support puts the bill back on track to be signed into law by President Donald Trump before Christmas.\r\nI think that we are going to be in a position to pass something as early as next week, which will be monumental, Trump said on Friday.\r\n\r\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n    \n    \n\t\n\t\n    \n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\n    \n\t\n     \n\t\n \n\t\n    \n    \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tRelated Issues:", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.scott.senate.gov/media-center/press-releases/-how-marco-rubio-forced-the-gops-hand-on-the-child-tax-credit"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4389539137482643, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}