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While we've become accustomed to hearing about the contention and gridlock in our political system, something remarkable happened in Congress at the end of January: A large, bipartisan coalition in the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024. This bill would temporarily expand the Child Tax Credit families rely on while also providing tax relief to businesses. Its passage through the Senate, which would make it law, would be an enormous boost to West Virginia families.
The CTC was temporarily expanded during the early months of the pandemic, from $2,000 to $3,000 per child over age six and to $3,600 per child under age five. That boost provided a crucial lifeline for kids and families in West Virginia and nationwide. In West Virginia, tens of thousands of children were lifted out of poverty. Most families used the money to purchase food (52%), pay for clothing and other essentials for their children (39%), and manage bills (38%). It wasn't a handout but rather a hand-up, and the expanded CTC dramatically reduced child poverty and food insecurity in our state.
It helped Meghan, a MomsRising member and single mom of four in Marlinton who works at a nonprofit and lives paycheck to paycheck. She says the expanded CTC was transformative for her family, allowing her to sleep at night knowing she could pay her bills and afford basics like child care, groceries, toiletries, and kerosene to heat her apartment.
And it made a huge difference for Nicole, a MomsRising member and mom who works as a server in Huntington. The CTC expansion made it possible for her to build emergency savings and pick up necessities her daughter needed.
Relief like that was seen throughout our state and all across the country -- until Congress let the expansion end, bringing to a screeching halt the historic progress it brought in reducing child poverty and dealing a devastating blow to West Virginia. After the CTC expansion ended, the national poverty rate for children more than doubled from a historic low of 5.2% in 2021 to 12.4% in 2022. Ouch.
But now we have a chance to resume the progress and help hard-working families in West Virginia and across the country cover the high cost of food and housing and pay for child care, so they can get and hang on to jobs. This helps our families and our state's economy. The bill the House passed and the Senate is considering, which is being championed by the bipartisan team of Rep. Jason Smith (R) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D), does not provide the full pandemic-era benefit to all families that are struggling to make ends meet, nor does it have some of the provisions that were so beneficial a few years ago. But in tax years 2023, 2024 and 2025, it would help give many parents the resources they need to work, raise their families, and contribute to our economy. While the earlier expanded CTC had a broad impact, this version is targeted to low-income families--90% of its impact would affect low-income families, reducing the number of U.S. children living in poverty by as many as 400,000, while benefiting about 16 million children. And it would especially help children and families in rural communities.
At this time when child care costs are soaring, when so many of our families are facing impossible choices between necessities like food and medicine, and when businesses and our economy need a boost, West Virginia moms are looking to lawmakers for exactly the kind of progress the Tax Relief for American Workers and Families Act of 2024 would bring.
That's why MomsRising, and so many others, are urging Sens. Shelley Moore Capito and Joe Manchin to support it without any amendments to weaken the legislation or disrupt its delicate balance of tax breaks for families and for businesses.
That's what West Virginia families deserve and what our state's economy needs.
A lifelong West Virginian, Amy Jo Hutchison is the West Virginia Campaign Director for MomsRising, the on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people.