The Census Bureau just released national poverty, income, and insurance data for 2023. It’s important to understand income and health insurance trends, but it’s especially important now since Congress will take up major tax legislation in 2025.
One thing we know for sure is that when the Child Tax Credit (CTC) was expanded in 2021, child poverty decreased by 46% overall, with Black and Hispanic/Latino child poverty falling by 6.3 percentage points in each community, impacting 716,000 Black children and 1.2 million Hispanic children. The new data shows that in 2023, the CTC lifted 2.4 million people above the federal poverty line―while important, falling far short of the 5.4 million lifted above the federal poverty line in 2021 by expanded monthly Child Tax Credit payments that included all children in low-income families.
Click here to send a direct message to Congress to expand the Child Tax Credit today.
Many people are facing food and housing insecurity, challenges with high child care costs, and dealing with other hardships that make it harder to make ends meet. Expanding the Child Tax Credit fixes a major flaw in current law: over 18 million children and their families are excluded from the full credit because their parents’ income is too low.
You read that right. Families where a parent can’t work due to illness or being laid off, cannot qualify for the Child Tax Credit at all. And many parents who work at low wages cannot get the full CTC. A single parent earning $15,000 a year and who has two children, will receive less than a family with a parent who has a higher paying job. This is a flaw that does nothing but exacerbate inequity and accelerate the racial wealth gap.
Instead of cutting investments in key programs and services, Congress must prioritize funding for human needs and that means passing an expanded Child Tax Credit that reaches the very poorest households.
Click here to send a direct message to Congress to expand the Child Tax Credit today.
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The FY 2025 budget needs edition. As we write this, Congress is limping along toward what we hope will be final passage of the FY 2024 appropriations bills. Because Congress is almost six months late in completing this process (the FY 2024 year began on October 1, 2023), human needs advocates are preparing to pivot quickly to 2025 spending.
Editor’s note: Below is a letter sent on behalf of the Coalition on Human Needs to all members of the House of Representatives, urging a “yes” vote on the package of appropriations bills before them. Update: After the House approved the package Friday afternoon, a second letter urging package was delivered to all members of the Senate. The Senate gave final approval to the legislation early Saturday morning, and it is on its way to President Biden’s desk for his signature.
Millions of Americans with low incomes will begin to lose internet access this May if Congress does not renew funding for a popular program aimed at reducing the digital divide between those who can afford broadband access and those who cannot. Since the launch of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) as part of bipartisan infrastructure legislation passed in 2021, the program has signed up an impressive 23 million Americans – the result of an effective outreach effort by the Biden Administration, state and local governments, and community organizers.
President Biden’s FY 2025 budget lays out important steps to meet our nation’s needs, provides help to those who need it most, invests in our future, and reduces the deficit over the next decade. These investments and deficit reduction are possible because the budget requires profitable corporations and the wealthy to pay more of their fair share in taxes. This combination of equity and investment make the Biden budget a highly responsible roadmap for the next decade and beyond.
The State of the Union edition. When President Biden delivered his speech Thursday evening, it was an opportune time for reflection. What has our country gotten right over the past three years? Where have we fallen short? What accomplishments can we celebrate, and what of the unfinished business that remains?
President Biden’s State of the Union address forcefully laid out his vision for a stronger democracy leading to greater fairness and an economy that works for all Americans. Delivering his speech on the 59th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the civil rights march in Alabama met with brutal violence, he urged support for the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. With stronger voting rights come greater accountability of elected officials, and greater accountability is likely to lead to policies ensuring that the rich and corporations pay more of their fair share of taxes. The hundreds of billions in fair revenues the President proposed would allow for more investments in broadly shared economic benefits, from capped prescription drug costs to more affordable housing and education to a restoration of the historically effective Child Tax Credit.
Advocates this week renewed their call for an expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC) with a Day of Action urging the Senate to follow the House and approve the bipartisan tax package that expands the CTC.
Many human needs advocates are breathing sighs of relief this week as Congressional leaders in both chambers and in both political parties released compromise text for six spending bills that must pass by Friday, March 8 to avoid a partial government shutdown.
The Poison Pills Edition. Congress has set deadlines for completing 12 bills that provide funding for all the federal programs requiring annual appropriations – including nutrition for babies, toddlers, and the aging, rental subsidies, environmental protection, child care, education from pre-k to college, transportation, and a whole lot more. Some of these programs will see their funding run out on March 1; the rest on March 8, if Congress does not finally approve funding or pass another extension. If funding runs out, the programs covered will shut down until Congress finally acts. Despite the fast approach of these deadlines, Congress is now in a recess. The Senate will return on Monday, February 26; the House not until February 28, just two days before the March 1 deadline.
CHN’s Executive Director Deborah Weinstein joined with other organizations in the Clean Budget Campaign this week to call on Congress to do its job and pass bills to fund the full range of government services, and to reject inserting extremist policies in the funding bills that could not get majority support on their own. Her comments are included in a Facebook video presentation to be shown on Wednesday, Feb. 21 at 3:00 p.m.
The domestic emergency needs edition. You’ve heard some in Congress say we have an emergency along our Southern border. And yes, it is true that Republicans should join Democrats at the table and negotiate a comprehensive immigration bill – one that treats immigrants fairly, whether they are already here, or are seeking to come here due to facing political oppression or various other forms of violence at home. But as members of Congress stare down the FY 2024 appropriations process from both sides of the aisle, it is abundantly clear that we have a number of domestic human needs emergencies we must address.
With the House passage of the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act, Congress is one important step closer to making needed improvements in the Child Tax Credit that will benefit 16 million children in families with low incomes and lift 400,000 children out of poverty this year. Now the Senate must act expeditiously to pass the bill, with no amendments that would reduce the Child Tax Credit’s help to children.