Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to restore the party’s expanded child tax credit.

Sanders offered an amendment to revive the expanded credit, which lapsed late last year, as part of Democrats’ sprawling tax, health care and climate bill, dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act.

In floor remarks ahead of the vote on Sunday, Sanders said the amendment sought to bring back a temporary expansion to the credit that was passed in the American Rescue Plan, a sweeping coronavirus relief package Democrats passed last year.

“Pathetically, the United States has the highest child poverty rate of almost any major country on Earth, and it is especially high among young people of color,” Sanders said.

“The American Rescue Plan included a $300 a month child tax credit which ended up lowering the child poverty rate in America by over 40 percent,” Sanders added, noting his amendment would restore the expanded credit for four years and “be fully paid for by restoring the top corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent.”.

The move by Sanders drew immediate pushback from Democrats ahead of the amendment vote, who expressed support for the child tax credit provision by itself but emphasized that they could not support the change in an effort to protect final passage on the full package.

It brought down the child poverty rate by 40 percent almost immediately,” said Sen.

The amendment was one of several ambitious proposals Sanders brought up early Sunday, all of which were overwhelmingly defeated.

“This bill does nothing to address the systemic dysfunctionality of the American health care system,” he also said, while also criticizing the bill for not doing more to address the nation’s child poverty rates or the “major housing crisis.”