MAZON Celebrates House Passage of Expanded Child Tax Credit
Last night, the U.S. House of Representatives approved an expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC) as part of a $87 billion tax package, which passed with broad bipartisan support in a vote of 357 to 70. MAZON celebrated the passage of this bill, which is estimated to assist an additional 16 million children facing hunger and poverty.
“Last night’s House passage of the expanded Child Tax Credit is a move in the right direction, and the Senate must now immediately approve the measure” said Abby J. Leibman, MAZON’s President and CEO. “We have seen, time and again, that safety net programs like the CTC lift Americans out of poverty and reverse the trend of hunger in this country. Do we wish this bill went farther? Of course we do. Do we want these changes to be permanent? Of course we do. Will we continue fighting for the CTC to become fully-refundable and permanent? You bet. But this vote signals a meaningful step in the fight to end hunger, particularly during this time of extreme divisiveness and congressional inaction. We are grateful to Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden and House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith for working together across party lines to advance this proposal, which will deliver meaningful income boosts to millions of families facing hunger.”
While pushing for Congress to pass the bipartisan tax deal, MAZON also urges policymakers to prioritize full funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), which faces an imminent funding crisis. Last month, MAZON sent a letter to Congress signed by 28 national faith-based organizations calling for increased WIC funds. Leibman also recently wrote a powerful article about the dangerous attacks on women and safety net programs designed to help them, which is creating “a new wave of the feminization of poverty.”