Children’s Action Alliance Supports an Expansion of the Child Tax Credit

When the Biden/Harris Administration and the Democratic Congress passed the American Rescue Plan in 2021, they included an expansion of the Clinton/Gore era Child Tax Credit where families received up to $3600 for children age six and younger and $3,000 for older ones.

This expansion resulted in the Child Poverty Rate being nearly and briefly halved until that portion of the American Rescue Plan lapsed one year later.

Currently, the child poverty rate is about where it was in 2019.

Not acceptable!

No child in this country, or for that matter, around the world, should be in poverty.

Efforts to restore a version of the child poverty tax credit expansion have, on several occasions, thanks largely to Republican Senators and Independent Joe Manchin’s intransigence, faltered, even when this expansion was coupled with the restoration of business tax credits.

In the Trump/Pence Tax cuts passed in 2017, the credit had been expanded to $2,000 per child per qualifying family.

That measure is due to expire when those tax cuts lapse in 2025.

Both party’s Presidential tickets are currently boasting their plans to expand the Child Tax Credit should they get elected.

Senator and Republican Vice Presidential Nominee J D Vance, in an interview on Face the Nation, proposed expanding the Credit to $5,000 a child.

However, the seriousness of Vance’s proposal merits questioning due to his missing the latest Senate vote to restore the Child Tax Credit.

Vice President and Democratic Presidential Nominee Kamala Harris unveiled her ideas for expanding the Child Tax Credit when introducing her goals to create an Opportunity Economy in an address in North Carolina just before the Democratic Party Convention.

In its current form, the Vice President’s proposals, if the Harris/Walz ticket is elected, would call for:

• A $6,000 child tax credit for newborns up to one year old.
• A $3600 child tax credit for all other children.

In her remarks in North Carolina, the Vice President said:

“We know this (Expanding both the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit) works.”

On the $6,000 for children in their first year, she said:

“Now think what that means. Think what that means. That is a vital, vital year of critical development of a child. And the costs can really add up, especially for young parents who need to buy diapers and clothes and a car seat and so much else.”

January Contreras, the leader of the Arizona based Children’s Action Alliance supports an expansion of the Child Tax Credit, commenting to Blog for Arizona:

“The data has shown us that the federal Child Tax Credit has the power to help families afford groceries, transportation, and a roof over their head. Children’s Action Alliance supported the bipartisan congressional effort to pass an expanded Child Tax Credit, and we will continue to support this solution because it’s proven to drive down child poverty.”