Harmful federal megabill impedes upward trajectory of Michigan kids and youth

As we gear up for next month’s Champions for Kids luncheon and the official release of the 2025 Kids Count in Michigan Data Book, Michigan’s youngest residents have been top of mind for us here at the Michigan League for Public Policy. We encourage you to join us at the luncheon to learn more about how children in Michigan are faring today and what you can do to help make a positive difference in their lives, especially in our current political climate.

We care deeply about the well-being of our state’s kids and young adults, which powers the work we do on the Kids Count in Michigan project and influences much of our other advocacy work here at the League. We recently published a new report that outlines the specific consequences of the federal Republican megabill passed by Congress and signed into law by the Trump administration last month. The report underscores the widespread harm that it will cause across our nation and here in Michigan, including the impact it will have on our state’s children. The so-called “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA) is anything but beautiful for kids growing up in Michigan today, as more than half a million Michiganders could lose health coverage and 123,000 may lose access to food assistance as a result of its passage. Many kids growing up in households with low to moderate incomes are, sadly, a part of these numbers.

It should go without saying that when health care and food are taken away from kids during the developmental years of their life, the consequences are catastrophic. Preventative care and access to care during illness is essential for children to stay healthy, do well in school and grow up strong so they can reach their full potential. And the same thing goes for proper nutrition. If kids experience food insecurity, they are more likely to fall behind in their classrooms and experience poor overall health outcomes.

The federal Child Tax Credit section of the federal Republican megabill also fails many Michigan children, despite a few modest improvements. An estimated 582,000 Michigan children under the age of 17 will be ineligible for the full $2,200 Child Tax Credit because their families’ incomes are too low under the OBBBA. This is due to the fact that the credit requires a certain amount of earned income to receive the full amount, with families required to earn more than $2,500 to receive any of the refundable portion and the credit phasing in slowly above that threshold at a rate of 15 cents per dollar earned. A family’s tax liability also limits how much they receive.

The credit will also be stripped away entirely from children who don’t have at least one parent or guardian with a Social Security Number, even if their parents pay their taxes with Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs). This means that 22,300 U.S. citizen children living in immigrant families here in Michigan will no longer be able to receive this critical funding.

This change in eligibility for ITIN filers is yet another direct attack on immigrant families who have already faced significant trauma as a result of the Trump administration’s mass deportation and detention policies. Members of Congress who voted for the OBBBA and the administration are doubling down on this trauma by investing an additional $170 billion in the mass deportation program, which will, in part, make it easier for immigrant agents to raid sensitive locations, including the schools where our young ones go to learn alongside their peers as well as the hospitals where families take their children for the care they need when they are sick or injured.

We encourage you to check out our new report to learn more about the very real human costs of the federal megabill for people of all ages, including our youngest Michiganders.