Let’s Put Families First

Join us in asking Michigan’s Congressional Delegation to expand the Child Tax Credit
to keep over half a million Michigan children out of poverty. 

The 2021 expansion of the Child Tax Credit put more money in families’ pockets so they could afford
the rising costs of essentials like food, clothing, and shelter, while helping drive child poverty down to a
record low. These dramatic gains show high child poverty is a choice, not an inevitability.
But Congress allowed the Child Tax Credit expansion to lapse and if lawmakers fail to act, 19 million
kids from families with the lowest incomes would face greater hardship or even be pushed into poverty.

If Congress fails to expand the Child Tax Credit, 554,000 kids in Michigan will lose out.

Policymakers must expand the Child Tax Credit by the end of the year to protect the gains we’ve made and ensure that families who need help the most aren’t left behind this winter. 

PLEASE  READ THE LETTER BELOW, THEN SUBMIT YOUR NAME TO URGE MICHIGAN’S CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION TO SUPPORT THE CHILD TAX CREDIT EXPANSION.

Dear Members of Congress:

Our nation’s historically high child poverty rate is a choice. Recent U.S. Census data reveals a fundamental truth: Congress has the power to make a different choice, to put families and workers first with proven-effective strategies to reduce child poverty and boost incomes for people who work but aren’t paid enough to make ends meet by expanding the Child Tax Credit (CTC).

We, the undersigned, are writing to urge you to prioritize expanding the CTC as part of the anticipated end-of-year budget bill. The time to pass these policies is now, as this may be the last chance this Congress has to act. Even as Congress has this tremendous opportunity to deliver for families and workers, press reports indicate lobbyists are pressuring Congress to deliver more significant tax breaks for businesses and corporations.

We urge you to put families and workers first: There should be no expanded tax breaks for businesses and corporations without expanding the CTC.

Under current law, too many children in families with the lowest incomes receive no CTC or receive a smaller credit than children in families with higher incomes. Expanding the CTC so that it reaches more of those children will go a long way toward improving Michigan families’ ability to make ends meet and reducing child poverty. As you know, the American Rescue Plan temporarily expanded the CTC for nearly 1.97 million children in Michigan, but the expansion has expired. The overwhelming majority of families with low incomes used the ARP’s monthly CTC payments to cover everyday challenges and basic expenses, such as food, utilities, rent, and diapers.

Before the ARP was passed, roughly 810,000 Michigan children received less than the full CTC, including many who got no credit at all — not because their families earned too much, but because of a flaw in the law that excludes kids from families with the lowest incomes. Those children excluded from the full credit include roughly half of all children in rural areas. The Rescue Plan CTC expansion, combined with other relief efforts, helped lower child poverty by more than 40 percent between 2020 and 2021, Census data show.

Investing in children in families with low incomes by expanding programs like the Child Tax Credit also has shown success in improving outcomes for those children over their whole lives, including higher educational attainment, better health, and higher earnings as adults.

Congress has a critical choice to make now: Will it expand the CTC to put more kids on an upward trajectory for life and help working people make ends meet, or will it go home without reaching a bipartisan agreement on these straightforward policies? We hope you will support these policies to support children–and to make sure any final legislative package in December doesn’t give more tax breaks for corporations without supporting Michigan kids and families first.