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 4, 2020
Labor Day Edition. In August, we saw slower progress in job growth than in the previous two months. The 1.4 million jobs gained included 238,000 temporary Census workers, whose jobs will end in about a month. While total unemployment declined to 8.4 percent, it was 13 percent for Blacks, 10.5 percent for Latinx, and 7.3 percent for whites, underscoring continued disparities in the way the pandemic recession is hitting different racial/ethnic groups. COVID-19 is not going away.“There are several states that are at risk for surging, namely North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Arkansas, Missouri, Indiana, Illinois,” says Dr. Anthony Fauci, warning about the possibility of further spread over the holiday weekend. It’s been 5 weeks since the termination of the $600/week Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, and so far only 15 percent of workers have seen the $300/week promised by the Trump Administration. The Senate took zero steps to act during its 25–day vacation; they’re coming back right after Labor Day, and what they will do is very unclear. In the meantime, the Centers for Disease Control judged the threat of millions of evictions a public health emergency requiring a broad moratorium on evictions through December 31. But with millions using up their meager savings to try to pay bills and one-third to nearly half of Latinx and Black households with children unable to pay rent, emergency rental assistance and more income assistance is going to be needed to keep people in their homes.
In 41 states (including Guam and D.C.) COVID caseloads either stayed the same or roseover the most recent 2-week period. (In 15 states plus Guam new cases per capita rose; 24 states plus DC stayed the same.)
How muchmoney jobless people have lost in 5 weeks since the $600/week Pandemic Unemployment Compensation was allowed to expire that they would have received if the House’s HEROES Act had been signed into law. Tweet this.
7 states
Only7 states have begun paying $300/week in Lost Wages Assistance, covering about 15% of jobless workers, withfunding President Trump is diverting from FEMA disaster relief. Most other states are not expected to get these funds out earlier than mid-to-late September, and the funds will run out after about 4-5 weeks.
38 percent of people who have lost a job or had their income reduced due to COVID-19 couldn’t last more than a monthfrom savings.
From 27%to 45%
The growth from 2019 to 2020 in the percentage of Black households with children that were falling behind in rent or mortgage payments or predicting they would. Among Latinx households with children, the percentage increased from 33% to 44%. Among white households with children, the percentage rose only from 18.5% to 19.2%.
30 to 40 million
The number of people in renter households facing eviction – as cited by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in its order announcing an eviction moratorium through December 31. So many evictions would result in overcrowding in housing and more homeless people in shelters, creating a public health emergency by increasing the spread pf COVID-19, CDC found. To make sure the moratorium applies to tenants, they need this from the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
70%
70 percent of Black immigrant domestic workers surveyed lost their jobs in the pandemic; 65 percent of respondents were fearful or at risk of eviction or utility shut off in the next three months.
