The National Women’s Law Center submitted a comment to Ways and Means Committee Republicans to share information on the 2017 tax law and the consequences and opportunities of expirations of major provisions of this law in 2025.

We argued in this comment that the 2025 tax deabtes should be focused on the primary purpose of the tax code: to support public investments we all rely on. Chronic underinvestment in women and families, however, continues to exacerbate racial and gender inequities. One critical example: our national failure to make robust public investments in child care, paid family and medical leave, and aging and disability care lowers women’s incomes, negatively impacts health and well-being, harms employers, and weakens the economy. Advancing gender and racial justice requires ensuring that the tax code raises more revenues to invest in our shared priorities in a progressive way.

In 2017, the passage of the law known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) continued the failed strategy of “trickle-down” economics by enacting large tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations. This strategy both continues to constrain the fiscal space to make the investments we need, and even on its own terms, has failed to deliver on its promises.

We wrote to urge the House Ways and Means Committee and Congress to use the coming expirations of the temporary provisions of the TCJA to change course and make the tax code more progressive as well as to raise needed revenue. Not only should we let the TCJA provisions that benefit the wealthiest expire, but we should go further to make sure the wealthy and big corporations are paying their fair share. Raising significant federal revenues is an important goal for the 2025 tax debate, and these revenues should support critical and long-overdue investments in women, families, and communities, such as the care infrastructure we all need to thrive.