U.S. Sens. Richard Shelby and Tommy Tuberville should support expanding the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) in year-end budget legislation, 52 organizations across Alabama wrote in a letter sent to the senators Tuesday. Alabama Arise is among the groups that signed the letter. The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) temporarily expanded the CTC for hundreds of thousands of Alabama children last year. The law also temporarily increased the maximum EITC for workers without children and broadened the age range for EITC eligibility. Those temporary improvements have expired, but Congress can renew them in the “lame duck” session beginning this week. “We urge you to put families and workers first,” the groups wrote to Shelby and Tuberville. “There should be no expanded tax breaks for businesses and corporations without expanding the CTC and EITC.”
The temporary CTC expansion worked swiftly and powerfully to ease suffering and expand economic opportunity, Census data shows. Monthly CTC payments last year helped families cover rising costs for necessities like food, utilities, rent and diapers. Overall, the policy kept more than 5 million Americans above the poverty line. It also contributed to a major nationwide reduction in the child poverty rate in 2021, with the Supplemental Poverty Measure for children falling from nearly 10% to about 5%. |
|
