Tell the Senate: Expand the Child Tax Credit now and reject attacks on low-income families
Cynical Senators are playing politics with the Child Tax Credit―and with the lives of millions of families with young children.
Some members of the Senate are lining up to block a tax package that will benefit 16 million children in lower-income families via an expanded CTC, despite a broad bipartisan House vote. Why? For some, the answer is simple: pure politics.
Expanding the Child Tax Credit is popular and is proven to dramatically reduce child poverty levels. So why are some members of the Senate trying so hard to stop the Senate from moving forward on this bipartisan package, and kill the CTC with poison pill amendments? Maybe because they think they can get a bill with more corporate tax breaks and a weaker CTC in the next Congress. Or maybe they don’t want to hand President Biden a legislative victory on an issue he has consistently championed. Whatever the reason, they are denying low-income families with children a bigger refund check just as millions of families are filing their taxes. We need Congress to act by the end of April to make it easier for people to receive a higher CTC as soon as possible. That’s why we are holding Senators accountable to take up this bipartisan tax package now.
The expanded Child Tax Credit included in the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act would lift 400,000 children out of poverty in tax year 2023, rising to 500,000 above the poverty line in 2025. It would also add much needed income to about 16 millionchildren in families struggling to meet basic needs.
Click “START WRITING” to send a message to your Senators right now and urge them to reject the stalling tactics of politicians playing political games and pass the expanded Child Tax Credit for low-income families before the end of tax season. Children and families need help now!
☰
Take Action
Subscribe
Donate
CHN’s COVID-19 Watch: Tracking Hardship September 11, 2020
The Reckless Abandonment Edition. While President Trump admits to misleading the American public on the health threat posed by COVID-19 – and more than 191,000 Americans are dead partly as a result – there can be no denying that the economic threat our country faces is dire. And yet: still no meaningful action from the Senate. Food scarcity in this country is exploding at an alarming rate. An eviction moratorium is in place, but due to loopholes and bureaucracy, people are still being evicted – and tens of millions more will join them early next year unless Congress provides emergency rental assistance. The $600 weekly federal UI payment has long expired – and the temporary, not-quite-workable $300 that the President authorized by taking disaster relief funds from FEMA soon will run out, even in states that are distributing the relief (almost two-thirds are not). Unemployment is rising again, but without schools and child care centers re-opening, many parents will be unable to work – even if they could find jobs, which many can’t. But instead of offering a serious response, Senate Majority Leader McConnell put a grossly inadequate bill on the floor that predictably and rightfully failed. That leaves the possibility that no relief package will be approved until the new year. This is unacceptable and outrageous. Bipartisan negotiations in Washington, D.C. must begin immediately.
The number of statesthat have made payments to jobless workers under President Trump’s Lost Wage Assistance (LWA) program. The rest have not yet started (South Dakota won’t provide this aid at all). Texas already has announced its last payment, offering only six weeks of aid. Tweet this.
9.2%
The unemployment rate for the week ending Sept. 5. That’s up from the August rate of 8.4%.
668,000
The total number of educator jobs lost since the pandemic began, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The National Education Association estimates that nearly two million K-12 jobs will be lost over the next three years if Congress does not act. Tweet this.
Half or more
The number of households in America’s four largest cities – New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston – that report facing serious financial problems, with issues ranging from depleting their savings to serious problems paying rent, according to a new poll. It’s worse for Latinx and Black households. Tweet this.
54 million
The number of Americans who could be food insecure by year’s end, according to Feeding America. That would be a 46% increase since the pandemic began.
$312b – $500b
The combined budget shortfall through summer 2022 for state and local governments, respectively, according to an analysis by Moody Analytics.
22 million
The number of adults who reported that they or someone in their household didn’t have enough to eat in the past seven days. That was true of 12 million adults in households with children — 14.1% of all adults in households with children.
40%
The percentage of people Feeding America’s more than 200 food banks nationwide are serving who had never had to rely upon a charitable food system before the pandemic struck.
19.2 million
The number of adults who are now uninsured. (18.6 million of these are between the ages of 18 and 64.)
