Twenty-eight thousand children in Michigan's 7th District, one in five, are growing up in households whose pay is too low to unlock the whole child tax credit as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act wrote it, Columbia University's poverty center estimates; statewide the count is 581,000. Tom Barrett voted for the law on July 3, 2025, his May vote having decided the House version, and a resolution crediting the law with a permanent expansion of the credit drew his yes on April 16, 2026.
Parents paying for day care fare little better: the law's bigger child and dependent care credit stays nonrefundable, so the National Women's Law Center finds it does nothing at all for families making less than $30,000.
Tom Barrett's Votes on the Child Tax Credit and Child Care Credit
- Barrett's District Counts 28,000 Children Below the Earnings Line for the Whole Child Tax Credit Under a Law He Voted For, Then Praised in 2026. Tom Barrett's July 3, 2025 yes helped the final One Big Beautiful Bill Act clear the House 218 to 214, two months after his vote was among the 215 that moved the House version by one. The following April 16, Barrett's yes went to H.Res. 1156, a resolution commending the law for steps that would "permanently expand the child tax credit." Because the credit still phases in with earnings, "more than 1 in 4 children (28%) under age 17 will be ineligible for the full Child Tax Credit," in the estimate of Columbia's Center on Poverty and Social Policy, and a married couple's family of four reaches the maximum only at $41,500 of income or above. Another provision "strips the Child Tax Credit from the approximately 2.6 million or more children" across the country, the National Immigration Law Center calculated, since neither parent filing has a Social Security number that permits work.
- Low-Wage Michigan Parents Paying for Day Care Are Shut Out of a Child Care Credit That Barrett's July 2025 Vote Enlarged. Barrett's vote went to a law that enlarges the child and dependent care tax credit while keeping it nonrefundable, which means parents who owe little or no income tax get little or none of it. Once the change took effect in 2026, "families making less than $30,000 won't benefit at all," the National Women's Law Center concluded; an analysis NWLC cites finds a larger credit reaching just 8.5 percent of families with children, with nearly four-fifths of the money flowing to middle- and higher-income families.
What Tom Barrett's Votes Mean for Michigan Children and Parents
- 581,000 Michigan children live in households whose pay is too low for the whole child tax credit. Statewide, Columbia's poverty center puts 29% of Michigan children, about 581,000, in families whose earnings fall short of what the law requires for the entire credit, so those households get a partial credit or none.
- 42,800 children in Barrett's district get their health care through the Medicaid program the law cuts. Michigan's 7th District had 42,800 children enrolled in Medicaid in 2025, KFF data show, and their checkups, vaccines and sick visits draw on the federal Medicaid money that the law reduces by $31.6 billion in Michigan over ten years.
Frequently Asked Questions About Tom Barrett on Child care and families
What is Tom Barrett's record on child care and families under Trump?
Under Trump, Tom Barrett voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a law whose earnings rules keep 20% of the children in his district, 28,000 kids, from the full child tax credit and whose child care credit is worth nothing to families under $30,000. Barrett's vote decided the House version in May 2025, and he went on in 2026 to vote for a resolution lauding the child tax credit.
What is the child care credit Tom Barrett voted for worth to Michigan families?
Not much, on average: under the law Tom Barrett voted for, the families who get a bigger child care credit receive an average of $890, though the maximum is $3,000, the National Women's Law Center says, and families earning under $30,000 receive nothing because the credit is nonrefundable.
Did Tom Barrett vote for the 2026 resolution that praised the law's child tax credit?
Yes. Tom Barrett voted yes on April 16, 2026, when the House adopted H.Res. 1156 by 219 to 207. The resolution calls the law the "Working Families Tax Cuts" and praises it for expanding the child tax credit, while Columbia researchers estimate that 28% of the country's children still fall short of the full credit under it.
Last updated: 2026-10-27