Missouri Congressman Jason Smith said the bipartisan vote on a bill that increases the child tax credit provides momentum to get through the Senate, even though some of his GOP colleagues are worrying about it helping President Joe Biden.
“You’ll hear politicians say all kinds of things all the time,” said Smith, R-Salem. “But the focus and the foundation should always be delivering for their constituents. That’s why I am pushing so aggressively for this package, because I think it’s pro-American. It is what Republicans and Democrats in this country can use.”
Smith and Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon teamed up to craft the legislation, which includes business incentives aimed at spurring research and development and a boost to the federal low-income housing tax credit. The other major part of the bill is an expansion of the Child Tax Credit. Workers who pay little to no federal taxes would get an additional $300 boost to the credit over the next three years. And for people who pay federal taxes, the credit will be tied to inflation — which means it will go up from its current $2,000-per-child rate.
Smith said the bill was the result of the Ways and Means Committee traveling throughout the country and hearing ideas from business owners. He added that he began working with the Senate after it became clear that buy-in from the Democratically controlled chamber was the only way the package would pass.
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Despite passing out of the Ways and Means Committee 40-3, the bill faced turbulence — especially when Republicans from New York publicly criticized how it didn’t include an increase to the deduction for state and local taxes. Axois reported that Smith’s chairmanship of Ways and Means was in jeopardy, with one unnamed lawmaker criticizing him for working with Democrats and members of the Senate.
“There’s always people who may be disgruntled that you work with, and they love to talk to reporters and hit their message,” Smith said about the article. “But I feel very comfortable and confident with the job I’m doing as chairman.”
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U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, D-St. Louis County, speaks during a campaign event on Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024, in Northwoods. Bush, who was first elected to represent the Missouri’s 1st Congressional District in 2020, is up for re-election.
Bipartisan objection
Among the 357 people who voted for the legislation were Smith, Reps. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Kansas City; Ann Wagner, R-Ballwin; Mark Alford, R-Cass County; Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth, and Sam Graves, R-Tarkio.
Cleaver said that while he would have liked to boost the Child Tax Credit to where it was in 2021, at $3,600 per child, “democracy demands compromise, and we must be pragmatic when searching for progress.”
“Although the U.S. is experiencing the strongest post-pandemic economic recovery in the world, I know that there are Missouri families that are still struggling to get by and I refuse to play politics when I could help provide those families with this lifeline instead,” Cleaver said.
A number of Cleaver’s Democratic colleagues, including U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, D-St. Louis County, voted against the measure, contending it was too slanted toward corporations.
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“I raised my own children as a single mother and understand what it’s like to be overlooked when it comes to federal policies that could have made the difference between putting food on the table or going hungry,” Bush said. “I refuse to turn my back on the thousands of children in St. Louis who stand to gain from meaningful policies that will save lives, especially when the alternative is helping billionaire corporations get richer. Our work is rooted in the need to deliver for the everyday families in St. Louis and across our country and I cannot justify supporting a bill that treats our most vulnerable families as an afterthought.”
Republicans, like U.S. Rep. Eric Burlison of Battlefield, were critical of the expansion of the Child Tax Credit, which they say amounted to an expansion of the welfare state.
“While there were some pro-growth provisions in the bill, there were also provisions that expanded welfare payments while weakening work requirements,” Burlison said. “In the end, the negative aspects of the bill outweighed the positive, so I voted against the bill.”
Other Republicans, including Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and Matt Gaetz of Florida, contended during Wednesday debate that the bill would incentivize people to enter the country illegally.
Smith described the people who voted against the bill, such as Bush, Gatez and Roy, as “the extremes of both parties. He also pushed back against contentions that the Child Tax Credit changes would incentivize illegal immigration, pointing to provisions in the 2017 tax cuts that only allow the credit to go to children who have a Social Security number.
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“So it’s easy for people to say one thing, but the facts are a little bit different,” he said.
Senate showdown
Smith’s bill now heads to the Senate. The measure received backing from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer several weeks ago, which is important since Democrats control the chamber.
But whether Republicans come on board is unclear. Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said this week that he was worried that passage would help Biden’s reelection efforts. That’s a similar argument Republicans are making about why they don’t want to pass any legislation to overhaul immigration policy.
A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Missouri, said he is monitoring the bill’s progress, while a request for comment from U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, was not immediately returned.
Smith isn’t expecting the bill to sail through the Senate, adding that “just as we had bumps in the road for the last 15 days here in the House of Representatives, there’ll be bumps over there.”
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“Because a tax package does not move often in Congress, let alone a bipartisan tax package,” Smith said. “But when you see something get 84% of the vote, that’s a mandate.”
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Missouri Rep. Jason Smith got his child tax credit bill through the House. Will the Senate act?
Missouri senior forward Mark Mitchell was recognized Monday with a second-team selection to the All-Southeastern Conference teams.
Mitchell has led the Tigers all season long and tops the team in scoring (17.9 points per game), rebounding (5.2) and assists (3.6). He would be the just the second player in program to lead all the categories in one season, joining Albert White from the 1998-99 season.
Mitchell is also on pace to become the first player in program history to average at least 17 points, five rebounds and three assists since Anthony Peeler in 1992, the year he took home the Big 8 Conference Player of the Year award.
Mitchell was the only Missouri player to be recognized in SEC postseason awards.
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Five players were named to each of the three All-SEC teams.
Darius Acuff Jr. (Arkansas), Ja’Kobi Gillespie (Tennessee), Thomas Haugh (Florida), Labaron Philon Jr. (Alabama) and Tyler Tanner (Vanderbilt) made the first team.
Acuff was named the conference’s player of the year and freshman of the year.
Joining Mitchell on the second team were Nate Ament (Tennessee), Rueben Chinyelu (Florida), Otega Oweh (Kentucky) and Dailyn Swain (Texas), while Rashaun Agee (Texas A&M), Alex Condon (Florida), Keyshawn Hall (Auburn), Aden Holloway (Alabama) and Josh Hubbard (Mississippi State) were named to the third team.
The All-SEC defensive team consisted of Chinyelu, Somto Cyril (Georgia), Felix Okpara (Tennessee), Billy Richmond III (Arkansas) and Tanner. Chinyelu was selected as the defensive player of the year.
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Appearing on the all-freshman team were Acuff, Amari Allen (Alabama), Ament, Malachi Moreno (Kentucky) and Meleek Thomas (Arkansas).
Swain was selected as the newcomer of the year, while Urban Klavzar of Florida was named the sixth man of the year.
The 2026 Missouri high school basketball state championship brackets continue on Monday, March 9, with eight games in the sectional and quarterfinal round of the higher classifications.
High School On SI has brackets for every classification in the Missouri high school basketball playoffs. The championship games will begin on March 19.
Missouri High School Girls Basketball 2026 Playoff Brackets, Schedule (MSHSAA) – March 9, 2026
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Sectionals
Doniphan vs. Potosi – 03/09, 6:00 PM CT
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St. James vs. St. Francis Borgia – 03/09, 6:00 PM CT
Notre Dame de Sion vs. Oak Grove – 03/09, 6:00 PM CT
Smithville vs. Benton – 03/09, 6:00 PM CT
Cardinal Ritter College Prep vs. Clayton – 03/09, 6:00 PM CT
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Orchard Farm vs. Kirksville – 03/09, 6:00 PM CT
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Boonville vs. Strafford – 03/09, 6:00 PM CT
Reeds Spring vs. Nevada – 03/09, 6:00 PM CT
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Quarterfinals
Festus vs. Lift for Life Academy – 03/13, 6:00 PM CT
Grandview vs. Kearney – 03/13, 6:00 PM CT
MICDS vs. St. Dominic – 03/13, 6:00 PM CT
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Helias vs. Marshfield – 03/13, 6:00 PM CT
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Quarterfinals
Jackson vs. Marquette – 03/13, 6:00 PM CT
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Rock Bridge vs. Staley – 03/13, 6:00 PM CT
Incarnate Word Academy vs. Troy-Buchanan – 03/13, 6:00 PM CT
Kickapoo vs. Lee’s Summit West – 03/13, 6:00 PM CT
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe’s request to grade public schools on an “A” through “F” scale is pushing House lawmakers to approve legislation some think isn’t quite ready.
With approval and dissent on both sides of the aisle, the House voted a bill to create a new school accountability system through to the Senate 96-53 Thursday despite concerns the letter grades could be a “scarlet letter” for underperforming schools.
“Will this labeling system actually improve schools or will it mostly brand communities, destabilize staffing and incentivize gaming rather than learning?” asked state Rep. Kem Smith, a Democrat from Florissant, during House debate Tuesday morning, March 3.
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She said the key metrics that determine the grade, performance and growth, are volatile.
“The label itself can become a self-fulfilling prophecy,” she said. “The bill doubles down on high stakes metrics that are known to be unstable.”
The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Dane Diehl, a Republican from Butler, told lawmakers that a performance-based school report card with “A” through “F” grades is inevitable. The details, though, are negotiable.
“The governor’s executive order, it is going to happen either way,” he said. “I think we tried to make that process a little better for school districts.”
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Kehoe’s order directs the state’s education department to draw up a plan for the report cards and present it to the State Board of Education. The board could reject the idea, but with a board with primarily new members appointed by Kehoe, lawmakers have accepted the system as fate.
State Rep. Ed Lewis, a Republican from Moberly and chair of the House’s education committee, told the committee in January that he prioritized the bill as a way to give lawmakers influence over the final outcome. He is happy with the edits the committee made, which gives the education department more leeway to determine grade thresholds and removes a provision that would raise expectations once 65% of schools achieve “A” or “B” grades.
The House also approved an amendment March 3 that would grade schools’ environment. This would be based on the rates of student suspension, seclusion and restraint incident rates and satisfaction surveys given to students, parents and teachers.
The Senate’s version, which passed out of its education committee last week, does not include those changes.
“I think (the House bill) is the best product we have in the Capitol right now,” Lewis said. “I am not saying it’s complete, but it is the best we have right now.”
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The changes have softened some skeptics of the legislation, like state Rep. Brad Pollitt.
Pollitt, a Sedalia Republican, said he didn’t support the legislation “for a number of years.” But with the edits, he sees potential for the legislation to usher in changes to the way the state accredits public schools.
The current process, he said, “nobody seems to like,” pointing to widespread concerns with the state’s standardized test.
Some of these changes are already happening quietly. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education received a grant from the federal government to develop a state assessment based on through-year testing, which would measure student growth throughout the school year, instead of a single summative assessment.
The department is poised to pilot the new test in 14 classrooms this spring, hoping to eventually offer it statewide within a few years. But the estimated startup cost of $2 million is one of many department requests cut from the governor’s proposed budget as the state grapples with declining revenue.
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Creating the “A” through “F” report cards is estimated to cost a similar amount, if not more, according to the state’s fiscal note. The expense is largely frontloaded, going to the programming and technology support required to create the grade cards’ interface.
When The Independent asked Kehoe’s office about the fiscal note, the governor’s communications director Gabby Picard said he would work with “associated agencies” to determine appropriate funding “while remaining mindful of the current budget constraints and maintaining fiscal responsibility.”
The House’s version of the legislation includes an incentive program for high-performing schools, giving bonuses to go toward teacher recruitment and retention, if the legislature appropriates funding for the program.
More: Missouri school board considers using letter grades to score districts
The bill originally proposed incentives of $50-100 per student to subsidize teacher pay. This had large fiscal implications, and Lewis surmised that it would violate a section of the State Constitution prohibiting bonuses for public employees.
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Making the funding optional and directing it to the school’s teacher recruitment and retention fund remedied those concerns. The Senate Education Committee removed the incentive program in its version of the legislation.
The House’s approval Thursday does not stop discussion and possible amendments. Next, the bill will go to the Senate for consideration, and if any changes are made, it will return to the House for more discussion.
This story was first published at missouriindependent.com.
