John,

When Congress passes corporate tax cuts, they often make these tax breaks retroactive for corporations for previous fiscal years. But right now, as we are demanding Congress pass an expanded Child Tax Credit, the Senate is attempting to undo a CTC “lookback” provision included in the House-passed tax bill that would provide help to low-wage workers with fluctuating incomes.

For a family experiencing a temporary decline in their earnings, this lookback provision is critical, and would allow them to receive the full Child Tax Credit based on a previous year’s wages, even when their current year’s earnings have dropped.

Consider a single mother with one child who earns $25,000 as a child care worker in 2024―under the House-passed bill, that family would receive a $1,900 CTC. But, in 2025, this same parent has to cut their hours to care for a sick child or loved one, so their earnings drop to $10,000. Without the lookback provision, this parent would be punished for having to take time off to care for a loved one; their CTC would drop to only $1,125. But the inclusion of the lookback in the expanded CTC would allow them to get the full tax credit for their child before they return to working full-time.

Parents and their children should not be penalized for a temporary decline in their earnings due to factors outside their control.

Write to your Senators and urge them to reject bad amendments to the expanded Child Tax Credit and pass the CTC in its current form now!

Another bad amendment that the Senate is considering would deny the Child Tax Credit to a child if their parent does not have a Social Security number. This penalizes children who are American citizens and have Social Security numbers who live in mixed status immigrant families. This xenophobic anti-immigrant attack would deny children of immigrant parent taxpayers an economic benefit they are entitled to as citizens. The Senate amendment would change current law, enacted as part of the Trump-era tax cuts, providing the CTC to children with Social Security numbers.

Children and immigrants should not be pawns in right-wing political games.

Write to your Senators and demand they reject attacks on immigrants and their families in the expanded Child Tax Credit being considered right now.

In the one year that the fully expanded Child Tax Credit was in effect, most low-income families spent their CTC on basic necessities like food, utilities, and rent or mortgage payments, as well as education expenses―and families need that help now.

Thank you for demanding Congress act,

Deborah Weinstein
Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs