Sanders offered an amendment to revive the expanded credit, which expired late last year, as part of the Democrats’ tax, health care and climate bill, dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act. But the Vermont Independent was the only one to support the revision, as it ultimately failed on a 1-97 vote. The vote came as the Senate looked for an hours-long impeachment vote, one of the final, key hurdles Democrats must clear to secure passage of their mammoth bill. During the often grueling, lengthy vote, any senator has the opportunity to force a vote on the amendment. In remarks before Sunday’s vote, Sanders said the amendment sought to restore a temporary credit extension approved in the US Rescue Plan, a sweeping coronavirus relief package that Democrats voted for last year. “Unfortunately, the United States has the highest rate of child poverty of almost any major country on Earth, and it is especially high among young people of color,” Sanders said. “This is the richest nation on Earth, we shouldn’t have the highest rate of child poverty of almost any country.” “The American Rescue Plan included a $300-a-month child tax credit that ended up reducing America’s child poverty rate by more than 40 percent,” Sanders added, noting that his amendment would reinstate the expanded credit for four years and “will be fully paid for by bringing back the top corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%. Sanders’ move drew immediate backlash from Democrats ahead of the vote on the amendment, who expressed support for the child tax credit provision on its own but stressed they could not support the change in an effort to protect the final vote of the complete package. “Japanese minute. Sanders is right, the child tax credit is one of the most important things this House has done. It reduced the child poverty rate by 40 percent almost immediately,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio ), who has long supported renewing the expanded credit, but urged colleagues not to vote for the amendment to avoid “throwing the bill.” Sen. Michael Bennett (D-Colo.) sounded a similar note, pledging to work with his colleagues to advance the provision but arguing that it should not be moved to the climate, tax and health care bills. “We have to fight to make this enhanced child tax credit permanent and I will do that with people on both sides of the aisle. But that does not advance this cause because we could lose the underlying bill and therefore, we would have to vote against the amendment,” the Colorado Democrat said. But Sanders appeared unsatisfied with his colleagues’ positions. He fired back at Brown, asking why passing the amendment or allowing 48 Democrats to vote for it would kill the bill. The Ohio Democrat pointed to the tenuous nature of passing legislation through budget reconciliation in an evenly divided Senate, which requires all Democrats to sign on to the bill to clear the chamber. If the amendment is added to the bill, it could jeopardize the final vote by preventing a member from supporting the overall legislation. Ahead of the weekend’s marathon debate, several Democrats vowed to vote against any amendments introduced on the floor — even if they agree with the premise of the change — to preserve their chances of passing the bill. “The stipulation on this is that all 50 Democrats support it. We know that every Republican has voted against the child tax credit not once last March but twice, but we know that this is a fragile provision and we have to vote for it, as much as I would like to, Senator Bennet,” Brown said. At the end of his remarks, the senator was heard to say, “Come on, Bernie.” The amendment was one of several ambitious proposals Sanders floated early Sunday that were overwhelmingly defeated. He cited them hours after criticizing the Democrats’ anti-inflation law for not going far enough on key issues like health care, child care and housing. Sanders also offered measures aimed at ensuring Medicare doesn’t pay more for prescription drugs than the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and expanding Medicare coverage to include dental, oral, hearing and vision benefits as potential package changes. The VA-related revision failed on a 1-99 vote, with Sanders the only member to vote in favor. Sanders’ proposed Medicare expansion amendment failed 3-97 after Sens. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), who faces a tough re-election campaign in November, and Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) joined the Vermont progressives voting for her . Sanders also introduced an amendment to establish a Climate Caucus, although the amendment failed by a vote of 1-98. Sanders’ amendments did not come as a surprise, as the senator has repeatedly expressed his frustration with the Lower Inflation Act, which has been drastically scaled back from the previous Democratic Build Back Back Better Act that the Vermont senator pushed hard to pass last year. PACT Act Implementation Is Veterans’ Next Battle Sanders Tears Down Inflation Act, Says It Will Have ‘Minimal Impact on Inflation’ Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (DN.Y.) announced an agreement with Sen. Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) on the smaller bill in late July, months after talks on the broader plan collapsed over his opposition center of West Virginia. In remarks ahead of Saturday’s unanimous vote, Sanders laid out a list of complaints with the watered-down bill, which he said “doesn’t address the reality that we have more income and wealth inequality today than at any time in recent memory.” One hundred years”. “This bill does nothing to address the systemic dysfunction of America’s health care system,” he said, while also criticizing the bill for not doing more to address the nation’s child poverty rates or the “major housing crisis.”