Monday, June 21 is Child Tax Credit Awareness Day
David Elliot,
June 18, 2021
Beginning July 15, most families with children will begin receiving monthly installments of the newly expanded Child Tax Credit. Families will receive $250 per month for each child age 6 through 17 and $300 per month for children younger than 6. In order to publicize the expansion – and ensure that hard-to-reach families who did not previously file tax forms receive it – the Biden Administration has designated this coming Monday, June 21 - as Child Tax Credit Awareness Day.
In storm’s path: FEMA fielding criticism for racial inequality in disaster aid
David Elliot,
June 17, 2021
As climate change advances, the U.S. is experiencing more drought, more wildfires, more floods. And now it is hurricane season – one year after we witnessed a total of 30 named storms, a record. But the federal agency charged with providing emergency aid and rebuilding assistance to Americans with damaged homes is facing a storm of its own. In recent months, a number of studies have confirmed what housing advocates have known all along: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) distributes more aid – a lot more, in some cases – to white homeowners than it does to Black homeowners.
CHN’s COVID-19 Watch: Tracking Hardship June 11, 2021
CHN Staff,
June 11, 2021
The Build Back Better edition. COVID-19 cases are down and more people are working. But all is not well in America. Staggering numbers remain out of work and now there is emerging evidence, that as Black and brown communities lag behind in vaccinations, COVID-19 could become a disease that overwhelmingly impacts communities of color. Vaccinations – which reached a peak of nearly two million per day in April – have slipped under 400,000 a day, endangering President Biden’s goal of having 70 percent of the country vaccinated by the 4th of July. Fewer than one in four Black Americans have received their first shot.
2021 sets new mark for voter suppression laws; Texas threat still looming
David Elliot,
June 10, 2021
Calendar year 2021 is not even half over – yet we already know that it will set a modern-day record for the number of voter suppression laws passed by state legislatures and enacted into law in one year. Between January 1 and May 14 of this year, 14 states enacted 22 new laws that restrict access to the vote. That breaks a record set in 2011, when – by October of that year – 19 restrictive laws were passed in 14 states.
The Biden Budget: Responsible investments in our future
CHN Staff,
June 7, 2021
President Biden’s budget is responsive to our needs and responsible to our future. Instead of ignoring government’s failure for years to maintain and improve the basic building blocks of our economic security, the budget makes investments our nation badly needs.
