Demand Congress use its “power of the purse” to hold Trump accountable
Article 1, Section 9, Clause 7 of the U.S. Constitution says: “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.”
The President of the United States does not have unlimited authority to decline congressional appropriations and decide what gets funded and by how much depending on his whims and which political adversaries he wants to punish.
By hijacking congressionally appropriated funds, Donald Trump and Elon Musk (and his unqualified, unscreened team) are yanking funding from people and programs in our communities―which will have a real impact on many of our neighbors as they face frozen funding for critical human needs programs that people rely on to survive.
Congress must stand up to stop this lawless power grab.
Across the country, support is building for Congress to once again expand the Child Tax Credit, with an increasing number of local media outlets taking note of the growing rise in hunger among families with children since the additional CTC payments were halted last December.
On Tuesday, in a story headlined “A push to revive Child Tax Credit for struggling NH families,” Public News Service (PNS) reported that the number of New Hampshire families with children who report they “sometimes or often” did not have enough to eat in the previous week has increased by 50 percent in the last year.
The story quotes Michael Reinke, Executive Director of the Nashua Soup Kitchen and Shelter, who said requests for family food boxes are up 25 percent from this time last year. His organization is urging lawmakers to make restoring the Child Tax Credit a top priority.
“Running out of the things that are more expensive — running out of meat, running out of milk, eggs — those are the highest demand right now,” Reinke observed.
Reinke added that the majority of people he meets at the soup kitchen are working, sometimes at more than one job. “You can be working full-time and still not be able to make all of your ends meet,” Reinke emphasized.
The story reports that in Utah, just a year after the monthly payments stopped, the number of families with children reporting food insecurity increased by 74 percent. Gina Cornia, Executive Director of Utahns Against Hunger, told PNS that lawmakers should reinstate the $300- to $360-per-child payments, especially with inflationnear double-digits.
“With the price of food, and with the price of gas and all of these other financial pressures these families are feeling, reinstating the monthly Child Tax Credit would really help ease those economic concerns for families,” Cornia contended.
Look for a number of other stories detailing how families need the expanded Child Tax Credit to pop up in the next week and a half or so. We’ll bring them to you when they do!
