Jeff Van Drew's votes on family tax credits came in three steps: May 22, 2025, when his yes decided the House's 215-to-214 passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act; July 3, 2025, when he voted for the final law; and April 16, 2026, when he voted for a House resolution praising that law for its child tax credit. Researchers at Columbia University put the cost in his district, New Jersey's 2nd, at 46,000 children, 30% of them, whose parents' pay is too low for the full credit.
The same law made the child and dependent care credit larger without making it refundable, so families with incomes under $30,000 receive nothing from it, the National Women's Law Center found.
Jeff Van Drew's Votes on the Child Tax Credit and Child Care Credit
- Van Drew Voted for a Child Tax Credit Formula Under Which Over a Quarter of Children Miss the Full Credit Because Their Parents Earn Too Little, Then Voted to Praise It. Jeff Van Drew's yes was the one-vote edge when H.R. 1 passed the House 215 to 214 on May 22, 2025; he was a yes again for its final version, 218 to 214, on July 3, 2025. Then, on April 16, 2026, came Van Drew's yes on H.Res. 1156, a resolution lauding steps that "permanently expand the child tax credit." The law raised the maximum to $2,200 a child but kept the earnings phase-in, so "more than 1 in 4 children (28%) under age 17 will be ineligible for the full Child Tax Credit," in the Columbia center's estimate; a married couple with two kids needs $41,500 in 2025 income to reach the full amount. Children of parents without a Social Security number valid for work lose the credit altogether: the National Immigration Law Center says the law "strips the Child Tax Credit from the approximately 2.6 million or more children" in that situation.
- Van Drew Voted for a Child Care Credit That Pays Nothing to Families Under $30,000, in July 2025. A bigger maximum for the child and dependent care credit came with the final law Van Drew voted for, but no refund: the credit only offsets income tax a family owes, and many working parents owe little or none. Once the change applies in 2026, "families making less than $30,000 won't benefit at all," the National Women's Law Center concluded from Tax Policy Center estimates, which find only 8.5 percent of families with children getting a larger credit and close to 80 percent of the benefit flowing to middle- and upper-income families.
What Jeff Van Drew's Votes Mean for Children and Parents in New Jersey's 2nd District
- 46,000 children in Van Drew's district are too poor for the full child tax credit. In New Jersey's 2nd District, 46,000 children, 30%, fall below the earnings line for the whole credit, by the Columbia poverty center's district count. For those families, the missing credit is money that would otherwise go to rent, groceries or child care.
- 54,600 children in Van Drew's district are on the Medicaid program his votes cut. Some 54,600 children in New Jersey's 2nd District had Medicaid in 2025, per KFF, and the law cuts federal Medicaid funding to New Jersey by $28.71 billion over ten years. Pediatric checkups, vaccines and asthma care for those children depend on the program the state now has less money to run.
- A June 2025 CBPP estimate found 26,000 New Jersey parents of teens in danger of losing SNAP. A parent's SNAP exemption from the work rules now ends when the youngest child turns 14. Scoring a Senate Agriculture Committee plan that made the same change, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities put 26,000 New Jersey parents in that group at risk of losing food aid each month in June 2025, along with the groceries it buys for their teenagers.
Frequently Asked Questions About Jeff Van Drew on Child care and families
What is Jeff Van Drew's record on child care and families under Trump?
Jeff Van Drew's May 2025 vote decided House passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, he voted for the final law in July 2025, and in April 2026 he joined the House majority adopting a resolution that hails its child tax credit. Three in ten children in New Jersey's 2nd District are shut out of that credit's full value, and families earning under $30,000 get nothing from the law's child care credit.
When did the child tax credit changes Jeff Van Drew voted for take effect, and who is left out?
The changes in the law Jeff Van Drew voted for began with the 2025 tax year: the maximum credit rose to $2,200 per child, indexed to inflation, but a two-parent family with two children needed at least $41,500 in 2025 income to qualify for all of it. Columbia researchers count about two million children from moderate-income homes who lost access to the full credit under the final law, and 60% of children with a single mother miss it.
When does the child care credit Jeff Van Drew voted for change, and does it help New Jersey families who need it most?
The child care credit change in the law Jeff Van Drew voted for applies starting in 2026, and because it is not refundable it does little for low-income families in New Jersey or elsewhere: nationally, families under $30,000 get nothing, and families that do gain average about $890, against a $3,000 maximum, by the National Women's Law Center's figures.
Last updated: 2026-10-27