Sen. Joe Manchin is demanding Biden’s child tax credit come with a work requirement and income cap around $60,000, report says

• Sen. Joe Manchin wants the child tax credit to cap family income around $60,000, sources told Axios.
• Manchin supported the credit under the American Rescue Plan in March with no work requirement.
• The first child tax credit payment lifted around 3 million children out of poverty, one study found.

As Democrats continue to negotiate over the reconciliation bill, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia has made firm demands regarding the child tax credit, including a work requirement and a family income cap around $60,000, sources told Axios.

The credit was initially expanded under the American Rescue Plan in March, with Manchin’s support and no work requirement, and provided most families with monthly payments of $250 or $300 per child. Single-parent and two-parent families who made up to $112,500 and $150,000 respectively were eligible for the full credit under the plan.

Manchin’s income cap proposal would significantly lower the amount families could bring home and still qualify for the credit.

A strong majority of Congressional Democrats have lobbied to make the child tax credit permanent as it helps millions of families pay for basic necessities like housing, health care, child care, and education.

A Columbia University study from August found that, under the American Rescue Plan, the first child tax credit payment in July lifted approximately 3 million children out of poverty.

-Pramila Jayapal (@PramilaJayapal) August 14, 2021

Still, Manchin argues that without a work requirement attached to the credit, our society and economy will develop an “entitlement mentality.” In September, he told CNN’s Dana Bash that tying the credit to parents with jobs would ensure assistance was provided to “the right people.”

An analysis released last week by researchers from the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University, Barnard College, and Bocconi University found the credit had “statistically insignificant impacts” on job seeking and workforce participation.

The child tax credit program is just one of the policies facing cuts in the proposed $3.5 trillion social spending bill as Democrats in Congress try to win over centrists like Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, Insider’s Joseph Zeballos-Roig reported.