House GOP Restores Adoption Tax Credit After Backlash

House Republicans reversed course Thursday on their plans to scrap the adoption tax credit. Kevin Brady, chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, issued a statement that an amendment to the committee's bill would restore the adoption credit and make other tweaks to the bill. The announcement came after news broke that the Senate GOP would keep the adoption tax credit in its tax reform bill.

The House GOP's initial proposal to nix the credit was met with strong backlash from a wide array of voices within the Republican party, including pro-life leaders, social conservatives, and other elected Republicans.

As THE WEEKLY STANDARD reported over the weekend, while adoption can cost an American family $20,000 to $50,000 in legal, medical, and other expenses, the federal government provides a child tax credit of up to $13,570 on eligible adoption expenses. The credit is generally nonrefundable, meaning that it can only be used to offset income tax liability, and it begins to phase out for families earning more than $203,000. (The credit may be fully refundable if an American is adopting a special-needs child.)

House speaker Paul Ryan defended the decision to get rid of the credit on Wednesday. "It is a tax credit that goes to higher income individuals. Middle and low income people don't get it today," Ryan told the Washington Examiner. According to the Tax Policy Center, the credit provides $2,500 on average to families earning $50,000 to $75,000 and $5,000 on average to families earning $75,000 to $100,000.

While the adoption tax credit can help offset the huge up-front costs of adopting a child, it costs taxpayers little. Annual expenditures equal less than 0.01 percent of the federal budget. The House GOP's proposed changes to the estate tax alone would cost nearly 50 times more than keeping the estate tax.