December 5, 2023

Sens. Maggie Hassan and Bill Cassidy captivated a Capitol Hill audience on Tuesday and reassured them that bipartisan cooperation is alive and well in Congress when it comes to issues impacting the lives of working families. Hassan (D-N.H.) and Cassidy (R-LA) took part in an event hosted by Spotlight and American Policy Ventures, with support from the Doris Duke Foundation, that explored bipartisan pathways to support pro-family policies.

The give-and-take between the two senators was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Adrienne Schweer of the Bipartisan Policy Center and featuring Luke Shaefer of the University of Michigan; Ja’Ron Smith, former senior domestic policy advisor during the Trump administration; conservative consultant and policy analyst Abby McCloskey, and Indivar Dutta-Gupta, president, and executive director at CLASP.

All the panelists agreed that finding a path to re-instituting some kind of additional child tax credit is a key discussion at the moment. McCloskey said that “an additional wrinkle or opportunity in there that I would add is increasing the flexibility of the existing credit. That if a family can claim the full credit, which is a subject of good debate, that’s $34,000 when their child is between the ages of zero and 17. That’s a lot of money.”

Full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeeLMkFTG2o