Tuesday’s release of data about poverty, income, and health insurance will reinforce vital lessons.  We learned that the expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC), in place in 2021, reduced child poverty nearly by half.  Despite this historic gain for children, there were not enough votes in Congress to continue the CTC expansion. So the nation got another, much more painful, lesson: in 2022, the child poverty rate as measured by the Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure more than doubled, rising from 5.2 percent in 2021 to 12.4 percent in 2022.  What happened to child poverty in 2023 is one of the most important findings to look for on Tuesday.  If child poverty remains substantially higher than it was when families benefited from the expanded Child Tax Credit, it confirms the lesson we have already learned: we must restore the expanded CTC.

The U.S. Census Bureau this week will release several reports aimed at explaining how Americans are faring when it comes to income, poverty, and health insurance coverage. The reports will be released Tuesday and Thursday, and the Coalition on Human Needs is preparing materials to help you understand what the information means and how to respond. 

The American Community Survey (ACS) is the most important Census Bureau survey you’ve never heard of. This nationwide survey provides vital information on a yearly basis about the housing, employment, economic security, education, health insurance coverage, and demographic characteristics of the nation’s population and neighborhoods. These data are used to allocate trillions of dollars in federal funding, develop informed policies, conduct rigorous research, assess programs, and enforce civil rights laws that protect people from discrimination.

Millions of Medicaid and Medicare recipients will be harmed. Newly won prescription drug negotiations will be stopped and costs will once again spiral, as will the cost of vaccinations. And in part by causing untold damage to the Environmental Protection Agency, millions more will suffer adverse health effects. During a recent webinar, three experts with the Center on American Progress (CAP) discussed the potential impact Project 2025 would have on health policy. Their diagnosis: not good.