“We are pleased to see bipartisan support for this new package, which will have the greatest impact on families with low or very low income, as well as Black and Latino children,” said Davis.
Contact: Johanna Elsemore, jelsemore@strength.org
WASHINGTON, DC — A bipartisan group of Congressional leaders have introduced a bill that would expand the Child Tax Credit, ensuring families with low incomes receive a credit for every child. The following is a statement from Lisa Davis, senior vice president for Share Our Strength and its No Kid Hungry campaign:
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, the enhanced Child Tax Credit was one of the most effective measures taken to lift kids out of poverty, despite millions of parents facing lost jobs and wages. It had a significant, measurable and immediate impact providing financial relief for families and cutting child poverty rates by 43%. However, as these policy changes expired, predictably both child poverty and food insecurity spiked.
“Congress now has the opportunity to partially restore that successful expansion, providing much needed resources to help families buy food and diapers, pay for child care and meet other essential needs. We are pleased to see bipartisan support for this new package, which will have the greatest impact on families with low or very low income, as well as Black and Latino children. We anticipate this expanded Child Tax Credit to improve the lives of 16 million children and lift up to 400,000 kids out of poverty.
“We know expanding the Child Tax Credit works. During the last expansion, child poverty fell at an unprecedented rate. While this proposal doesn’t restore all the policies we had hoped to see, we believe it is a meaningful step in the right direction and urge lawmakers to act quickly to support families struggling to make ends meet.”
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About No Kid Hungry
No child should go hungry in America. But millions of kids in the United States live with hunger. No Kid Hungry is working to end childhood hunger by helping launch and improve programs that give all kids the healthy food they need to thrive. This is a problem we know how to solve. No Kid Hungry is a campaign of Share Our Strength, an organization committed to ending hunger and poverty.