Editor’s note: Deborah Weinstein, Executive Director of the Coalition on Human Needs, sent the following letter to all members of the House, urging a timely vote to approve the bipartisan Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024. This legislation includes an expanded Child Tax Credit. You can download a copy of CHN’s letter to House members here.

Dear Representative: 

On behalf of the Coalition on Human Needs, I am writing to urge you to vote for H.R. 7024, the bipartisan Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024. We urge members of Congress to actively support moving the bipartisan tax package at the first opportunity because of important changes to the Child Tax Credit (CTC). We think it is critical that the expansions to the CTC can take effect this tax season. 

The Coalition on Human Needs is an alliance of organizations including faith groups, human service providers, policy experts, labor, civil rights, and others concerned with meeting the needs of people with low incomes. We see HR. 7024 as an important step to increase the CTC for 80 percent of the families with low incomes who do not now receive the full credit.  It would lift 400,000 children out of poverty in tax year 2023, rising to 500,000 above the poverty line in 2025.  More than one in five children under the age of 17 will benefit in the first year of this legislation, including one in three Black and Latino children and three in ten American Indian/Alaska Native children benefit from the bill, because their parents are more likely to be in low-paid jobs.   

Yes, these improvements do not go as far as they should. CHN and our members pledge to continue to advocate to expand the CTC further to help the poorest children. We see this legislation as a step to help families struggling to meet basic needs; it is likely our best opportunity this year to boost the incomes of millions of families and lift thousands of children above the federal poverty line. We are strongly opposed to any changes to H.R. 7024 that would take the expanded CTC away from families, and urge you to oppose any amendments that would undermine the CTC provisions in this package.  

Families need this help now.  As recently as this past October, more than one in three people with children in households earning less than $25,000 said they sometimes or often did not have enough to eat in the previous week.  Similar hardship was also true of more than one in five Latino adults with children and of more than one in four Black adults with children.  During the same period, more than one in five people with children said they had been unable to pay their home energy bill at least once in the past 12 months.  The extra money the expanded CTC will provide will make a real difference in families’ ability to pay for their basic needs, and that will mean healthier children with fewer school absences and more school progress. 

Congress must not turn away from the opportunity to help this huge proportion of America’s children and their families.  Congress must act now, so that families can gain the benefit for the 2023 tax year. Please vote YES on H.R. 7024 and work with your colleagues to ensure an expansion of the Child Tax Credit goes into effect as soon as possible.