Bill With Child Tax Credit Advances, but Election Politics Test Its Chances

The House approved a $78 billion tax package Wednesday with a large bipartisan margin. The effort is a test of whether a dysfunctional Congress can pass major legislation in an election year.

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Lawmakers in both parties regard the tax bill moving forward as a policy victory.

The House gave broad bipartisan approval on Wednesday to a $78 billion bill that would expand the child tax credit and restore a set of corporate tax breaks, a rare feat in an election year by a Congress that has labored to legislate.

The bill passed 357 to 70, with mainstream lawmakers in both parties driving the House’s first major bipartisan bill of the year to passage. Forty-seven Republicans and 23 Democrats voted against the bill.

But despite the lopsided show of support, the measure faces a fraught path to enactment amid political divides over who should benefit the most. The effort, which faces resistance from Senate Republicans, is a test of whether a divided Congress with painfully thin margins can buck the dysfunction of the Republican-led House, set aside electoral politics and deliver legislation that would contain victories for both parties.

Representative Jason Smith, Republican of Missouri and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, championed the legislation as “pro-growth, pro-jobs and pro-America.”

“It’s a strong, common sense, bipartisan step forward in providing urgent tax relief for working families and small businesses,” Mr. Smith added.

The package would expand the child tax credit — though a version substantially scaled back from its pandemic-era level — and restore a set of business tax breaks related to research and development and capital expenses. Both would last through 2025. It would also bolster the low-income housing tax credit and extend tax benefits to disaster victims and Taiwanese companies and individuals.

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