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CNBC – Racial justice organizations call to reinstate the enhanced Child Tax Credit

06. 20. 2022

40 groups, including UnidosUS, the NAACP, Economic Security Project, sent a letter advocating reinstatement of the enhanced tax credit.

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This article originally appeared in CNBC.

Bringing back the enhanced child tax credit with monthly checks would help lift millions of children out of poverty at a time when their families are struggling with increased prices from inflation and economic uncertainty, according to racial justice organizations.

That’s why a group of more than 40 such groups, including UnidosUS, the NAACP, the Economic Security Project, National Urban League, Community Change Action and The Leadership Conference, sent a letter advocating reinstatement of the enhanced tax credit to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in May.

“Those are the kids who were struggling the most before and for whom the CTC made the most difference, and who were really left in a lurch by the expiration,” said Adam Ruben, director of the Economic Security Project.

The second element advocates want to preserve is the monthly payments, which helped families keep up with everyday expenses, he added.

Expanding the enhanced credit through 2025 would have significantly lowered child poverty and lifted more than 4 million children from living in poverty, according to the Urban Institute.

“Poverty is a policy choice,” the organizations wrote in the letter. “Allowing millions of children, including more than 2.5 million Black and Latino children, to fall back into poverty is also a political choice.