Time is Running Out to Save the Child Tax Credit

This piece was originally published in the December 16, 2021 edition of CAP Action’s newsletter, the Progress Report. Subscribe to the Progress Report here.

‘‘If [the Child Tax Credit] hadn’t happened, when it did… I would have just dropped to my knees and cried. I didn’t want to watch my kids suffer anymore… It was a lifesaver.’’ —  Hannah Ochoa; Marietta, Georgia

Families across the country struggling through the pandemic received a vital lifeline from Biden’s rescue plan in the form of the expanded Child Tax Credit. These monthly payments contributed to a record reduction in poverty for struggling families at a time when they needed it the most.

But today is the last day those payments will go out—unless the Senate acts. The Build Back Better Act would extend the expanded Child Tax Credit through next year, allowing families to count on the assistance they need to keep their children fed, clothed, and housed for what is shaping up to be another uncertain year.

We need your help to get the word out about the urgent need to pass Build Back Better and extend the Child Tax Credit.

Share this graphic to let people know how urgent this is:

IN THE NEWS

• Pfizer’s experimental new COVID-19 treatment pill continues to show strong resistance to the virus, reducing the risk of hospitalization or death by 89%. When taken within the first five days of contracting symptoms, Paxlovid causes “an approximate 10-fold decrease in viral load at Day 5, relative to placebo,” giving hope that the drug can save lives around the world.
• President Biden has declared emergencies in Tennessee and Illinois as a result of this weekend’s storms which left 88 dead and more than 100 missing across the south and midwest. The president will travel to hardest-hit Kentucky today to survey the damage personally, and has pledged federal assistance to all communities affected for as long as it takes to recover.

WHAT WE’RE READING

• This Is What Happens When Workers Don’t Control Their Own Lives by Jamelle Bouie (New York Times)
• Mitch McConnell’s Reality Check For Trump Is Most Notable Quote Of 2021 (AP)
• Protesting Voting Rights Activists Arrested as Biden Meets with Manchin by Lauren Burke (The Guardian)
• Biden’s Rural Investments Run Up Against the Culture Wars in Wisconsin by Meredith Lee (Politico)
• Trump’s PowerPoint Coup Plotters were Crackpots. We May Not be So Lucky Next Time. by Dana Milbank (Washington Post)
• Democracy in the Balance: Revise Senate Filibuster to Protect Elections and Voting Rights by Editorial Board (USA Today)

This piece was originally published in the December 16, 2021 edition of CAP Action’s newsletter, the Progress Report. Subscribe to the Progress Report here.