What’s going on with the Child Tax Credit? 

First, I would like to thank you for your years of advocacy to expand the Child Tax Credit (CTC) for families with the lowest incomes. As we know, when Congress meaningfully expands the CTC, it dramatically reduces child poverty. In 2024, your advocacy helped the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act (H.R. 7024) pass the House with a huge bipartisan majority, 357-70! This bill is not perfect. But, if passed, it would represent a major improvement over current law. It would help the families of 500,000 kids lift themselves from poverty while benefiting 16 million children nationwide. 

Once the bill passed the House, you sprang into action again, urging your senators to bring the bill to a vote and vote “yes”. Unfortunately, the bill has been stalled in the Senate for over five months, and it does not appear to have enough support to pass. This is no fault of advocates, but election year politics. With the election less than four months away, some Republicans don’t want to give the Democrats a win and some Democrats don’t want to bring up a bill that won’t pass. 

For RESULTS, this undermines the ability to hold senators of both parties accountable. Whether or not the bill passes the Senate should be up to each of the 100 senators. That is democracy. As constituents, we can and should express our support or opposition to the outcome. But without a vote, we are denied that opportunity.  

We are closely monitoring the situation right now, and we remain hopeful that we could see a vote in July. Unfortunately, the chances dwindle by the day. If a vote is called, you will be the first to know. In that case, we will once again call on our elected leaders to pass this important bipartisan legislation. 

And please know that the effort to expand the CTC is far from over. While the stall in the Senate is disappointing, Congress is already gearing up for a huge tax debate in 2025 when the 2017 “Trump tax cuts” expire. Expanding the CTC will most certainly be on the table, in large part because of your amazing advocacy the last few years. Stay tuned as we get closer to 2025 on how that campaign will unfold. 

If you have ongoing questions regarding the status of the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act (H.R. 7024), please email me (David Plasterer) at any time: [email protected]. For now, we will prioritize nutrition and housing for our U.S. lobbying and media work. But, if you would like to discuss CTC in an upcoming lobby meeting or media piece, we are more than happy to talk to you about how to make the biggest impact possible. 

As always, thank you for all you do!