Source: United States Senator for Colorado Michael Bennet
Denver – Yesterday, millions of eligible families began to receive the first monthly payment of the expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC), which is based on U.S Colorado Senator Michael Bennet’s American Family Act and was signed into law in the American Rescue Plan Act earlier this year. The expansion has the potential to cut nationwide child poverty nearly in half this year and benefit 90% of American children.
This week, Bennet joined U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) to celebrate the first CTC payments reaching American families. You can download photos from the press conference HERE.
Today, Bennet stopped by the Creative Learning Academy in Aurora and the Boys & Girls Club in Montbello to spread the word about the CTC to Colorado parents and families. You can download photos from the roundtable HERE and from the Boys & Girls club visit HERE.
Here’s what they’re saying about the first payments of the Child Tax Credit expansion:
Families with kids, check your bank accounts. Starting now, the balance should look a little higher.
July 15 is when the vast majority of families across the country will start receiving monthly payments that will continue throughout the rest of this year. The payments are part of the American Rescue Plan, the comprehensive relief package that President Joe Biden signed in March.
This new law is one of the most significant lifelines to American workers and families in generations, and it includes two ideas we have long championed. It expands the earned income tax credit, which will make hard work pay off for more people. And it expands the child tax credit, the payments starting this week, to help families keep up with the rising costs of raising children.
Denver Post: Editorial: Don’t miss out on the child tax credit payments that start Thursday
More than a million children in Colorado and millions more across the nation will begin receiving $250 to $300 a month from the IRS on Thursday under Sen. Michael Bennet’s ambitious plan to cut child poverty in half with an amped-up child tax credit.
The beauty of Bennet’s enhanced child tax credit is the potential it has to help those in poverty. It’d be a shame if they missed out, so we are trying to get the word out. The IRS has launched a website to help make sure everyone who is eligible gets their money, and those who don’t want to get the money opt-out.
Bennet’s dream – only temporary now as part of the American Rescue Plan – is to make the increased child tax credit a permanent feature of the U.S. tax code giving parents with young children resources for child care, housing, food and, well, anything. It’s a plan we support.
WATCH: Fox 31 Denver: Senator Bennet Interview: Expanded child tax credit could become permanent — if Dems get their way
Lawmakers who advocated for the increase in [CTC] payments are happy that the money will finally be hitting the accounts of parents, but now they’re calling on their colleagues to keep those increases coming.
“39 million families across the country will receive the first monthly payments of the expanded Child Tax Credit and will see that Washington can actually work for them,” [said Bennet].
But the future of those boosts hangs in the balance. While lawmakers on Capitol Hill agree childhood poverty is an issue in America, Republicans are concerned about the price tag to bump Child Tax Credit payments up to $300 per month per child under six. Now Democrats backing the bill, including Colorado Senator Michael Bennet, are pushing to make the increased payments permanent.
WATCH: Denver CBS: Almost Every Parent In The Country Will Start Receiving Monthly Checks From The Federal Government
If you have a kid under age 17, chances are you are eligible for the new child tax credit. Starting Thursday, parents will receive up to $300 a month for each child under the age of 6 and $250 for kids 6 to 17 every month.
The exact amount depends on your household income and family size. It’s expected to cut childhood poverty in half because, unlike the previous child tax credit, it will benefit the poorest families – those who don’t make enough to file a tax return.
Right now, they don’t qualify for a tax credit. There are 350,000 kids in Colorado whose parents don’t file returns. In all, a million Colorado kids will benefit from the new child tax credit or 96% of all families here.
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U.S. Senator Michael Bennet fought for years to get the child tax credit approved.
“We are the wealthiest nation in human history. The population of Americans that is before us is our children. That is a disgrace,” [said Bennet].
WATCH: Denver 7: Senator Bennet Interview on the Child Tax Credit
New overnight, millions of Americans will see a deposit in their bank accounts or mailboxes. The Biden Administration is rolling out payments for the Child Tax Credit program. This morning, we’re going in-depth on the payments, the resources available in our area, when the program ends, and, if you don’t qualify, talks of a fourth stimulus payment.
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Colorado Senator Michael Bennet has been pushing for monthly checks to help families for four years now. I asked him what these extra payments will mean for families.
“Thinking about how to pay rent or buy some groceries or maybe pay for a few hours of childcare so a parent can work — that’s the idea here [said Bennet].”
Axios Denver: How to claim the new $300 child tax credit in Colorado
Starting Thursday, most Colorado parents will begin receiving up to $300 a month in payments from the newly expanded federal Child Tax Credit.
Why it matters: A chief policy priority of Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, the tax credit approved as part of recent stimulus legislation represents what advocates consider the most significant investment in children in decades.
Pueblo Chieftain: The first Child Tax Credit advanced payment hits this week. Here’s what you need to know.
Eligible families will begin to receive monthly payments on Thursday for the expanded federal child tax credit, a milestone in social public policy that was passed as part of the American Rescue Plan Act earlier this year.
It’s a longtime legislative goal of Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat who represents Colorado
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“It’s going to provide a measure of economic security for millions of families who have been living on the edge for many years,” Bennet said.
Western Slope Now: Child Tax Credit releases first payments Thursday
The 2021 Child Tax Credit payments will soon be distributed to nearly 39 million families according to the U.S. Treasury Department. President Biden says the purpose of readjusting the already-existent tax credit is to alleviate millions of children from poverty – especially coming out of a pandemic,
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has affected millions of Americans, leaving many jobless while struggling to feed their families,” says KREX5’s Reilly Spence.
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U.S. Senator Michael Bennet says it will give Americans from all walks of life a second chance, “We’ve had an economy that’s worked really well for the top ten percent of Americans, and not worked well for anybody else. This is a very modest way of trying to address that and give families a chance at the end of the month to be able to pay the rent or pay for additional groceries or pay for a little bit of childcare,” says Senator Michael Bennet.
Associated Press: Money in the Bank: Child Tax Credit Dollars Head to Parents
The child tax credit had always been an empty gesture to millions of parents like Tamika Daniel.
That changes Thursday when the first payment of $1,000 hits Daniel’s bank account — and dollars start flowing to the pockets of more than 35 million families around the country. Daniel, a 35-year-old mother of four, didn’t even know the tax credit existed until President Joe Biden expanded it for one year as part of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package that passed in March.
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“It’s actually coming right on time,” [Daniel] said. “We have a lot going on. This definitely helps to take a load off.”
Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet said the problem is one of inequality. He said that economic growth has benefited the top 10% of earners in recent decades, while families are struggling with the rising costs of housing, child care and health care. He said his voters back in Colorado are concerned that their children will be poorer than previous generations and that requires the expansion of the child tax credit.
“It’s the most progressive change to America’s tax code ever,” Bennet told reporters.
CNBC: Democratic lawmakers call for permanent expansion of the $3,000 child tax credit
On the eve of the first advance payment of the new enhanced child tax credit (CTC), a group of Democratic lawmakers is once again calling for the expansion to be made permanent.
The CTC was expanded as part of the American Rescue Plan (ARP), passed earlier this year. It increases the standard credit to $3,600 per year for children under 6, and to $3,000 for children 6 to 17 for 2021, with half of the payment amount paid out monthly starting Thursday, July 15.
The group, which includes Sens. Michael Bennet (Colo.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio) and Cory Booker (N.J.), and U.S. Representatives Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), Suzan DelBene (Wash.) and Ritchie Torres (N.Y.), said during a press conference Wednesday it is their goal to make the expansion permanent so parents know they can rely on the money each month.
Business Insider: The government is sending up to $300 monthly checks to families with kids starting today. Democrats want to make it permanent as a new form of Social Security.
The US government is poised to send the first batch of child tax credit payments on Thursday.
Policymakers estimate 35.2 million families could see cash deposited into their bank accounts.
The success of the program will determine whether Democrats can extend it as another form of Social Security.
America’s neglected social safety net could be getting its largest patch in a generation on Thursday, when the US begins an experiment providing a guaranteed income for families with children. Its success will determine whether it becomes a permanent fixture.
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Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, an architect of the measure, said on Monday the IRS has given the child tax credit “100% of their attention” and said he’s regularly communicated with the agency.
Colorado Public Radio: More Than Half A Million Colorado Families Will Get Child Tax Credit Payments
Congressional Democrats are touting the Child Tax Credit as checks hit bank accounts today.
“Today’s the day that we say to the parents of America, ‘Help is on the way,’” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
He said this will help middle-class families stay in the middle class, and for children in poor families, it will help lift half of them out of poverty.
The expansion of the credit means that families will receive $300 per month for each child under 6 years old, and $250 per month for kids 6 to 17 through the end of the year. It phases out for families with higher incomes.
According to the White House, more than 580,000 families in Colorado will get a check, equalling more than $244 million in total payouts.
Schumer praised Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet and Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown for being “relentless” and making the expansion happen.
The expanded child tax credit “makes sure the people in America who need the help the most, get help, and get it on a monthly basis,” Bennet said. “And I think that is a demonstration from Washington, D.C. that our kids are visible to us.”
The 19th: As child tax credit payments reach families, moms see a road out of poverty
The past decade has been a relentless cycle of loss and struggle for the Powers family in West Philadelphia. At times it felt like they couldn’t catch a break.
Syrita and Aaron Powers’ three daughters have special needs, and the youngest two are non-verbal. Their son was born premature in 2009 and died. During the pandemic, Aaron was laid off from his job at a car dealership, and both parents became unemployed. The girls struggled with school. The plumbing broke in their old three-bedroom rowhouse and the roof began leaking into one of the girls’ rooms. The three girls squeezed into the other remaining room.
“As the challenges got more prevalent, we sank deeper into poverty,” said Syrita, 42.
And because their income status fluctuated, they could rarely count on one of the only federal relief programs for parents, the child tax credit, to give them a boost each year. The nation’s poorest families have never qualified for the full amount of the credit — $2,000 per child before this year — because it was designed to support working families who paid income tax.
That changed when Congress passed an expansion of the credit earlier this year. That made the tax credit available to the lowest-income families and expanded the amount available to $3,000 for kids ages 6 to 17 and $3,600 for kids under 6. In addition, instead of an annual lump sum, the money would be distributed monthly in increments of $250 or $300 a month per child depending on the children’s ages.
Washington Post: The new child tax credit could lift more than 5 million kids out of poverty. Can it help them learn, too?
Sen. Michael F. Bennet (D-Colo.), who has been pushing Congress to expand the child tax credit since 2015, served as the superintendent of Denver Public Schools immediately before he took office in 2009. During his four-year tenure leading the district, he worked hard to boost achievement among low-income students, believing there was no excuse for children in poverty not to succeed. But even as he saw some successes among high-poverty schools, his views started to change.
“One of the things that I came away from the experience in the school district believing was that the schools wouldn’t be able to solve all these issues on their own,” Bennet said in an interview in April. “We had to find ways of creating greater economic mobility for families and for kids.”
WATCH: Senator Bennet’s interview on Morning Joe (MSNBC)
“Now, Democratic Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado. He wrote and helped pass the expanded Child Tax Credit, a program that starts delivering payments directly to families this week,” [said Joe Scarborough].
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“…It will cut childhood poverty in this country almost in half. The way it works is it goes from $2,000 a kid to $3,000–$3600 for kids under the age of six. It’s fully refundable which means, for the first time in the country’s history, the millions of children who are the poorest children will receive it, and it will be paid out starting on July 15 on a monthly basis for the next six months… So, here is an opportunity finally for the federal government to intercede on the behalf of working families, on poor families, and make a difference in their lives. It certainly has made me more optimistic than I have been in the last 11 years that I’ve been in the Senate and I give the Biden administration huge credit for leading on this, [said Bennet].”
WATCH: The Washington Post Live: Senator Bennet Interview
“I know it’s a big day for you and for millions of Americans across the country today. You have been a passionate advocate for expanding and eventually making permanent the Child Tax Credit, which was expanded in President Biden’s American rescue plan. It was a key issue you ran on in your very brief presidential campaign in 2020, but it’s an issue that you’ve been passionate about since 2015, really. Today is the date that those first payments are going to go out to 39 million families,” [said Jacqueline Alemany].
“I think families are going to have an opportunity now to get a little bit of help at the end of the month to relieve the pressure, to relieve the burden, to pay their rent, to buy some groceries, maybe buy some daycare so they can stay at work and earn a little bit more,” [said Bennet]. “Obviously what we really have to do is create an economy that, when it grows, works for everybody, not just the people at the very top. But I think this is a very big step forward, and as a result of what Joe Biden has done, we’re gonna cut childhood poverty in this country, this year, almost in half.”