Tag: U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids

Expanded Child Tax Credit to help Kansas families recover from the pandemic

The expanded Child Tax Credit will help Kansas families recover from the pandemic, according to U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, D-3rd Dist.

New monthly payments will begin reaching families’ bank accounts Thursday, and Rep. Davids and other officials shared resources for families to check their eligibility, track payments and update their information with the IRS.

Rep. Davids voted to support the American Rescue Plan, which expanded and improved Child Tax Credits. The plan provides monthly advance payments of up to $300 per child.

Rep. Davids said the tax cut will benefit 77 percent of children in the 3rd District, and more than 618,000 children across the state of Kansas.

The IRS is starting to send out payments on July 15, according to Rep. Davids.

“After the pandemic devastated both the health of our communities and the stability of our economy, the expanded Child Tax Credit offers a lifeline to families who are trying to get back on their feet,” Rep. Davids said. “Through the American Rescue Plan, over 45,000 households in the Third District will begin receiving monthly payments this week, with an average annual benefit of $2,700. It’s critical that families have the information they need to access this tax cut and start to return to a sense of normal after a year of uncertainty.”

“The expanded Child Tax Credit is essential for families to provide for their children during their most formative years,” said Paula Neth, CEO of the Family Conservancy in Kansas City, Kansas. “My organization works to create equitable opportunities for all children to thrive. The CTC does exactly that while also easing the burden brought on by the pandemic. This past year has been tough, and I am hopeful that these funds can bring a sense of security for the kids in our community.”

“A year and a half ago, no one would have imagined the struggle all of our families have endured over the past year,” said Crystal Henry, a Merriam parent. “While the Child Tax Credit may not make up for the experiences our kids have lost, it will help set my family and others in our community up for success as our country begins to heal. I am incredibly thankful for Representative Davids’ work in voting for this tax cut for Kansas families.”

The IRS recently launched three new online tools designed to help families manage and monitor their advance monthly payments from the Child Tax Credit:

  1. The Child Tax Credit Eligibility Assistant at https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/advance-child-tax-credit-eligibility-assistant, which helps families determine whether they qualify for Child Tax Credit payments.
  2. The Update Portal at https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/child-tax-credit-update-portal, which helps families monitor and manage Child Tax Credit payments. The portal is a secure tool available to any eligible family, and will be where filers can let the IRS know of any changes in their income, address, or family status.
  3. The Non-filer Sign-up Tool at https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/child-tax-credit-non-filer-sign-up-tool, which helps families not normally required to file an income tax return to quickly register for the Child Tax Credit.

More information on the Child Tax Credit (CTC):

The American Rescue Plan expanded the CTC to up to $3,600 per child for children ages 0 to 5 and $3,000 per child for children ages 6 to 17. In addition, it authorized advance monthly payments for eligible families (as opposed to a lump sum payment). Beginning this week and running through December, qualifying families can get up to:
• $300 a month per child for children ages 0 to 5.
• $250 a month per child for children ages 6 to 17.

Families will qualify for a full credit if their income is below $75,000 for single filers, $112,000 for people filing as head of household, or $150,000 for people who are married and filing jointly. To be eligible, children must:
• Have a Social Security number,
• Live with the filer for at least half of the year,
• Be under age 18 as of Dec. 31, 2021, and
• Be claimed on the filer’s tax return.

Children are eligible if they are children, adopted children, stepchildren, half-siblings, foster children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews, or certain other relatives.

For information on how the American Rescue Plan directly helps Kansas, visit Rep. Davids’ resource page at https://davids.house.gov/rescue. To read Rep. Davids’ Child Tax Credit report on the impact on Kansas families, visit https://davids.house.gov/media/press-releases/davids-releases-new-report-impact-child-tax-credit-expansion-kansas-ahead-irs-1.

Earmarks pose tricky question for Kansas Republicans: Miss out on money or keep your reputation

Republican budget hawks put an end to the earmarks in Congress a decade ago. Now earmarks are back, and Kansas Republicans in Congress are in a bind: do they take a pass on earmarks and let their districts miss out on money?

by Abigail Censky, KCUR and Kansas News Service

Topeka, Kansas — Eleven years ago, in a navy-and-wood-paneled Topeka TV studio, then U.S. Reps. Jerry Moran and Todd Tiahrt argued ahead of the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate.

Looking directly into the camera, Moran told viewers he backed a moratorium on earmarks, but “Congressman Tiahrt led the effort to keep the earmarks process in place.”

Tiahrt framed it differently.

“Well, when you listen to Congressman Moran, you’d think that I’m the only one in Washington or from Kansas that does earmarks,” Tiahrt said.

But, he said, everyone was using them.

“In fact, just last year,” Tiahrt said, “Moran supported and requested more than $250 million in earmarks.”

Earmarks give Congress a tool to tie money from a spending bill to a specific project without going through all of the hoops of a normal funding request.

They’d become a favorite target for Republicans, glaring examples of the soft corruption of incumbents that wasted money on things like a bridge to nowhere. And when the budget hawks of the Tea Party swept into the U.S. House, earmarks got swept away.

Tiahrt’s seat on the powerful appropriations committee and his desire to reform earmarks, rather than ditch them entirely, put a target on his back. He lost to Moran, who’s since become a senator.

This year, Democrats in Congress brought earmarks back, and they’ve invited Republicans to join in snagging money for special projects in their districts. Some Republicans are cashing in. But earmarks pose a double-edged sword for members of a party that has long stood for less spending and lower taxes. If they don’t play the earmark game, they leave money in Washington that could’ve come back to their districts — and won them votes.

A moratorium

In 2010, before Jerry Moran became a senator, gone were the days of touting the $142,500 he had secured to help pay for the McPherson Opera House, or the earmark requests he’d made to help a community college build a biotech center.

Shortly after the 2010 elections, the earmarks that helped build coalitions, pass big spending bills, and generally greased the wheels of Capitol Hill went away when House Speaker John Boehner banned them.

Giving up earmarks also meant surrendering a way to control some of the Republican Party’s most fiscally conservative firebrands. There weren’t as many incentives like campaign donations or spending money for special projects to bring people to middle ground.

“What else do you have? Well, you could really go nuclear, if someone is a real thorn in your side, and remove them from a committee,” said Laura Blessing, who studied earmarks as a senior fellow at the Georgetown Government Affairs Institute. “It’s just too strong of a tool. That’s a sledgehammer.”

Then-U.S.Rep. Tim Huelskamp felt that hammer’s blow. He’d had a stormy relationship with Boehner. The speaker booted the congressman from western Kansas, and leader of the House Freedom Caucus, off the House Agriculture Committee. And for the first time in 150 years, Kansas no longer had a player sitting at the table when farm policy got hashed out.

When he ran for reelection in 2016, attack ads blasted the Republican for losing that ag seat.

Michael Smith, a political science professor at Emporia State University, said Huelskamp effectively lost re-election when he lost his spot on the committee.

“When Roger Marshall challenged him in the primaries, he didn’t specifically run on earmarks. Earmarks are kind of politically touchy,” Smith said. But “he hammered Huelskamp on the idea (that) he is not the most effective of bringing home resources to this district. And earmarks are a part of that.”

Play or not

Yet when asked about earmarks recently, now-Sen. Marshall told Politico, “I’m gonna do everything I can to blow up the process so that no one does earmarks.”

Rep. Tracey Mann, a Republican from Salina, said in a statement, “I did not run for office so I could be the caretaker in the slow demise of our great nation,” noting he was worried a return to earmarks in the House, “will once again spiral out of control and lead to more government spending.”

U.S. Rep. Ron Estes, a Wichita Republican, agreed. A statement from his office said the earmarks process “detracts from focusing on how to reduce spending.”

Smith said if Republicans continue to pass on earmarks, that’s leaving federal money that could benefit their districts on the table.

“Are they going to bring over that conservative ideology argument, no more big government?” he said. “Or are they going to go back to the more traditional kind of Bob Dole type politics of talking small government, but still making sure that their districts get their fair share of the pie?”

U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids is the lone Kansas Democrat in Congress. She supports earmarks to help revamp a Kansas City highway and buy more electric buses for her district. Davids has requested millions of dollars in earmarks for a myriad of projects ranging from $43 million for a levee and flood wall system in Merriam to an imaging machine at the University of Kansas Cancer Center.

So far, none of the three Republicans who represent Kansas in the U.S. House requested earmarks. The only member of Kansas’ delegation who hasn’t decided yet is Moran.

When Politico polled senators in early May, Moran was one of more than a dozen who were undecided if they would participate in earmarks this year. His office didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.

Jim Slattery is a former Democratic member of Congress from Topeka. He said he thinks the Kansas delegation should request earmarks. If Congress doesn’t choose where to spend the money, he said, the president will. That cash could end up going to swing states that are more politically useful to the president. Not Kansas.

“Why,” he said, “would they not aggressively pursue the money that is being appropriated to build highways and build infrastructure to improve the internet and broadband capability in Kansas?”

Abigail Censky is the political reporter for the Kansas News Service. You can follow her on Twitter @AbigailCensky or email her at abigailcensky (at) kcur (dot) org.
The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy.
Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished by news media at no cost with proper attribution and a link to ksnewsservice.org.
See more at https://www.kcur.org/news/2021-06-07/earmarks-pose-tricky-question-for-kansas-republicans-miss-out-on-money-or-keep-your-reputation.

Rep. Davids votes for $1.9 trillion stimulus package

U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, D-3rd Dist., today voted for the American Rescue Plan, a $1.9 trillion stimulus package that provides $1,400 checks to individuals.

Rep. Davids stated it was an urgently needed package to combat COVID-19 and the economic crisis, and to get relief to Kansans.

The bill passed the Senate last week with minor changes. After House passage today, it then goes to President Biden for a signature. He is expected to sign it on Friday.

“The coronavirus pandemic is continuing to destroy lives and livelihoods across the country. While not a perfect bill, the American Rescue Plan contains many of the measures I’ve pushed for to address this health and economic crisis – including ramping up vaccine and PPE production, putting money directly in the pockets of Kansans, and getting aid to our state and local governments to keep our teachers and firefighters on the payroll. I look forward to President Biden signing this bill into law so we can get much needed relief into the hands of the American people right away,” Rep. Davids said in a news release.

State and local leaders from both sides the aisle issued their support for the transformational relief package, which would provide Kansas with an estimated $1.58 billion to keep teachers, firefighters, and essential workers on the payroll and avoid painful cuts to the services Kansans depend on.

The bill would also mount a national vaccination program, ramp up domestic production of PPE and medical supplies, provide support for workers and small businesses, help Kansas cover the cost of Medicaid expansion, and invest in school re-opening, among other measures.

“This plan isn’t perfect, but it is another critical step toward Kansas’ economic recovery. It provides relief to Kansas families, schools and businesses. It will help us get vaccines into arms quicker. Lastly – it gives us more reasons to expand Medicaid and get 165,000 Kansans access to affordable health care – something we urgently need to do during a global pandemic,” Gov. Laura Kelly said.

“The passage of the American Rescue Plan Act will provide much-needed support to our states and cities, our small businesses and our citizens. This past year has been so difficult for so many, and the KC Chamber believes the relief included in this package, as well as the support from last year’s CARES Act, is critical for our region as we work towards a robust and inclusive recovery for all segments of our economy and citizenry,” said Joe Reardon, president and CEO of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.

“The support from the American Rescue Plan for community health centers will help us expand and improve our response to COVID-19. We will be able to increase vaccination and testing efforts as well as improve our team’s ability to address the underlying health inequities we have seen exacerbated by this pandemic,” said Patrick Sallee, Vibrant Health CEO.

“Our community has been disproportionately impacted by the health, economic, and human consequences of COVID-19. Additional federal assistance is critical, allowing us to continue fighting the pandemic and restoring basic services and programs affected by prolonged revenue losses and economic uncertainty,” said Mayor David Alvey of the Unified Government.