Source: United States Senator for New Jersey Cory Booker
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Reverend Dr. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), and Ron Wyden (D-OR) urged President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to secure an extension of the expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC) as a centerpiece of the Build Back Better package.
“The expanded CTC is a signature domestic policy achievement of this administration, and has been an overwhelming success,” wrote the senators.“The Biden Administration’s expanded CTC represents the biggest tax cut for low- and middle-income families in modern American history—standing in sharp contrast to the $8 trillion in tax cuts Congress has enacted since 2001, the benefits of which have largely gone to the wealthy.”
“The consequences of failing to extend the CTC expansion are dire, particularly as families face another wave of the COVID-19 pandemic,” they wrote. “After historic progress, it is unacceptable to return to a status quo in which children are America’s poorest residents and child poverty costs our nation more than $1 trillion per year. Raising taxes on working families is the last thing we should do during a pandemic.”
“??We are deeply grateful for your leadership on the historic CTC expansion, and we stand ready to work with you to extend this critical investment in American families and children as part of the Build Back Better package,” the senators concluded.
The American Rescue Plan expanded the Child Tax Credit based on Booker, Bennet, and Brown’s American Family Act. Over the last 6 months, millions of families have received monthly installments of the CTC, including 27 million children who were previously excluded from the full tax credit.
The House-passed Build Back Better Act included a one-year extension of the expanded CTC and permanent full refundability for the credit. In March 2021, Booker, Bennet, Brown, Warnock, and Wyden led Senate Democrats in pushing to make the expansion of the CTC permanent.
The text of the letter to President Biden and Vice President Harris is available here.