One of the misfortunes of the American Rescue Plan was that the provisions to expand the Child Tax Credit for the nation’s families expired at the end of 2021 after helping drop the child poverty rate to its lowest rate in decades.
While several states, including Arizona, sought local remedies to partially or fully make up for the loss of this valued expansion at the federal level, there were undoubtedly many smiles across the country when the House of Representatives, in an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote, passed legislation that would expand the Child Tax Credit for three years along with additional tax credits for affordable housing, interest expensing, and research and development (the latter two were on the Republican tax cut wish list.)
According to The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, this measure, in the very likely event it passes the Senate and is signed into law by President Biden, will result in 16 million children in low-income families (including 424,000 Arizonan ones) would benefit from the program with 500,000 being lifted out of poverty.
While this measure is not as extensive as the expired Child Tax Credit Provisions in the American Rescue Plan, it is a step in the right direction.
Commenting on the House passage, Children’s Action Alliance Chief Executive Officer January Contreras relayed in an official statement:
“The federal Child Tax Credit brings much-needed economic relief to families and is a tool that is proven to reduce child poverty. Too many families are left behind because their incomes are too low to be eligible for the full tax credit, and this legislation is a step in the right direction. At a time when families are struggling with rising costs, this bipartisan agreement does the right thing by investing our taxpayer funds in children in our state and across the country,”
All Democrats in the Arizona House Delegation (Ruben Gallego, Raul Grijalva, and Greg Stanton) supported the expansion.
Only Arizona Republicans Juan Ciscomani and David Schweikert (two incumbents in battleground districts fighting to remain in Congress) voted for the measure.
Commenting on social media, Representative and United States Senate Candidate Gallego posted:
Representative Stanton posted: