Dear John,

This is what cash can do. 

Single-mom Chephirah lost her job braiding hair during the pandemic. While she worked on and off after that, including at the Dollar Store, it didn't pay enough to cover her bills. That's when Magnolia Mother's Trust entered the picture. The nonprofit organization gives $1,000 per month for a year to 100 families headed by Black women living in federally subsidized housing. The money helped cover Chephirah’s monthly bills, and she got caught up with old debts. She was also able to pay for her daughter’s school books and set aside money for her college fund. 

Cash payments for those families with children living in poverty help cover basic needs so people can plan for the future—and finally feel hope. 
 
For tens of millions of American families, cash relief will now arrive in the form of a monthly child tax credit (CTC) payment—deposited directly from the Treasury Department into taxpayers’ bank accounts. This week, as part of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan passed by Congress last March, parents started receiving between $250 and $300 for each child 17 years old or younger. This money will help put food on the table, cover school supplies costs, new clothes and unexpected expenses. Experts project that the CTC could cut child poverty in the U.S. in half.

Those families eligible for the CTC payments include single taxpayer families earning up to $75,000 and joint taxpayer families earning up to $150,000. But not everyone who is eligible is aware of the child tax credit program. According to Stacey Rutland, founder and president of Income Movement Foundation, only 40 to 50 percent of those eligible for CTC payments know about the program. 

What’s more, the child tax credit program is set to expire at the end of December. Be sure to read our story on CTC to find out if you’re eligible – or someone you know is eligible – for the tax credit. And how Magnolia Mother’s Trust, Marshall Plan for Moms, Income Movement and countless organizations across the country are advocating to make the CTC permanent. 

In more good news this week, Senate Democrats reached a $3.5 trillion deal to fund Biden’s “human infrastructure” agenda, which will have to be passed through the budget reconciliation process, since all Republican Senators led by Mitch McConnell have vowed to oppose the plan.  With a simple majority vote in the Senate, the path is cleared for Congress to extend the CTC, as well as expand caregiving for the elderly and the disabled, expand Medicare and introduce universal pre-kindergarten, investments in child care, free community college and national paid family leave.

And finally, be sure to read our reporting on the over 50 Texas Democratic state legislators who left the state en masse for Washington, D.C., preventing a quorum and stopping extreme voter suppression bills from advancing through the state legislature. One of those Democrats is Texas state Representative Erin Zwiener (D)—a mother to a 3-year-old daughter named Lark. She tells Ms. how, due to very real child care constraints, she faced an impossible choice: Do I flee the state with or without my child? Read her story and how Lark is welcomed in the meetings her mother is having with U.S. senators. 

You’ll find these stories and more below and at Msmagazine.com. Thank you for keeping up with the world through Ms.!

For equality,

Kathy Spillar
Executive Editor