109th CONGRESS
2d Session

S. 2257

To provide for an enhanced refundable credit for families who resided in the Hurricane Katrina disaster area on August 28, 2005.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

February 8, 2006

Mr. OBAMA (for himself, Ms. LANDRIEU, Mr. DURBIN, and Mr. KERRY) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

A BILL

To provide for an enhanced refundable credit for families who resided in the Hurricane Katrina disaster area on August 28, 2005.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the `Hurricane Katrina Working Family Tax Relief Act of 2006'.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:

      (1) The child tax credit is the Federal Government's largest subsidy for children, with an annual value of over $55,000,000,000.

      (2) More than 25 percent of all children, including nearly 50 percent of all African-American children and 46 percent of all Latino children, are in families too poor to qualify for the full $1,000 per year child tax credit, in spite of the fact that the vast majority of these children are in working families.

      (3) Parents who have 2 children and who both work full time for a full year at the minimum wage will earn too little to be eligible for the full child tax credit, and a single mother who works full time for a full year at the minimum wage will earn too little to be eligible for even a partial child tax credit.

      (4) The damage caused by Hurricane Katrina covered 90,000 square miles along America's Gulf Coast, and many of the devastated counties and parishes already had among the highest rates of poverty and child poverty in the nation.

      (5) Mississippi and Louisiana are two States with the highest proportions of children left out of the full child tax credit.

SEC. 3. WORKING FAMILY TAX RELIEF.

    For purposes of section 24(d) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (relating to portion of child tax credit made refundable), in the case of any taxable year beginning during 2006 or 2007, with respect to any taxpayer who had a primary residence in the Hurricane Katrina disaster area (as defined in section 1400M(2) of such Code) on August 28, 2005, clause (i) of section 24(d)(1)(B) of such Code shall be applied by substituting 10 percent of the taxpayer's earned income for such taxable year for the amount which would otherwise be determined under such clause for such taxable year. A taxpayer may elect not to have this section apply for any taxable year.

END