RESULTS Weekly Update January 17, 2024

Quote of the Week

” I strongly encourage N.C. representatives and senators to back expanding the CTC to ensure this proven aid to lifting children out of poverty is available to those who need it most.”

– RESULTS Triangle NC volunteer Patti Maxwell in a January 7 letter to the editor in the Raleigh News & Observer

Table of Contents

• We have a deal! Now, can we get it passed?
• Please complete your 2024 Group Roadmaps
• Quick News on U.S. and Global Poverty
• Announcements
• Upcoming Events
• Grassroots Resources

We have a deal! Now, can we get it passed?

The wait is over! Yesterday, Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) and House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-MO-8) announced an agreement to expand the Child Tax Credit (CTC). As part of a larger tax package that also includes tax breaks for business, the deal:

• Expands the refundable portion of the credit to $1,800 in tax year 2023, $1,900 in tax year 2024, and the full $2,000 in tax year 2025.
• Indexes the credit amount to inflation.
• Allows families to receive the CTC on a per-child basis. Currently, families with low-income receive a smaller credit for any additional children. With this change, they will receive the same CTC for each of their children (higher income families already get this benefit).
• Allows families to calculate their CTC using the higher of their current year’s earnings or their previous year’s earnings. This will maximize the credit for them.

Estimates from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities show that 16 million children who currently don’t receive the full CTC will benefit in the first year alone, including 400,000 children lifted from poverty. When the full expansion is in effect in 2025, 500,000 children will be lifted above the poverty line.

You should be proud of this agreement. Through your advocacy, your hands are all over it. Your push to make sure any expansion reduces child poverty? Check. Your push to make sure families with low-income get the same CTC as wealthier families? Check. Your push for a bipartisan CTC expansion after the 2021 expansion expired? Check. You helped make this happen.

Is this ideal? No. Even with these improvements, there are still too many children left in poverty that the 2021 expansion helped. We must and will still work to expand the CTC to all low-income children. But this compromise is a meaningful improvement over the status quo and puts us in a stronger position to push for a full CTC expansion when Congress debates major tax issues in 2025. This agreement is not perfect, but it is progress and that’s why RESULTS is pushing to enact this agreement.

Now we must get it passed. With tax season beginning this month, Congress must pass it as soon as possible to ensure families can claim the new CTC on their 2023 taxes. We don’t care what vehicle Congress uses to pass it; just get it done now. Please help get your members of Congress on board with the new CTC expansion!

TAKE ACTION: Make sure your representatives and senators hear from you this week. Urge them to support the new bipartisan tax agreement and to push House and Senate leadership to prioritize passing it this month. Advocates from around the country will be joining you. Use our updated CTC action alert to e-mail your members of Congress today. Send the alert to others you know and ask them to call and e-mail too. Also, if you have a relationship with the tax aide in your House and Senate offices, please contact them directly urging them to support the CTC expansion and to pass it now. expert David Plasterer.

Please complete your 2024 Group Roadmaps

RESULTS volunteers annually take time in January to plan out their advocacy goals for the year. This planning is a big reason you are such effective volunteer advocates. If you have not done so yet, please schedule your group’s roadmap planning meeting now. This meeting is a chance for you to reflect on your 2023 successes, outline roles for members of your group, and set goals for your advocacy in 2024. This is an integral part of our work each year, and RESULTS staff is here to help you.

TAKE ACTION: Find 2024 planning materials on the Working with Your Group page under “Make your group plans”. Also, your group’s 2024 Roadmap has been added to your group’s existing Roadmap spreadsheet. If you need help finding your Roadmap or materials, please contact RESULTS staff. Happy planning!

Quick News on U.S. and Global Poverty

Urge senators to sign letter defending Prof. Muhammad Yunus. Long-time RESULTS grassroots will remember our history of supporting microcredit/microfinance as an anti-poverty tool. Microfinance was pioneered by economist Professor Muhammad Yunus and his work with the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. RESULTS developed a close friendship with Prof. Yunus, leading to decades of work together advocating for the end of poverty (he even served on the RESULTS’ Board of Directors). With RESULTS advocacy, Prof. Yunus received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2013 for his work in microfinance, for which he also won the Nobel Peace Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Sadly, in recent years, Prof. Yunus has come under threat by the Prime Minister of Bangladesh with unsubstantiated accusations of corruption that have been widely rejected. Despite pushback from allies across the globe, the threats to Prof. Yunus have persisted. Now, he is under threat of being jailed. In his defense, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) is seeking Senate co-signers to this letter to the Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, urging her to end the Bangladeshi government’s persistent harassment Prof. Yunus. Please support this effort by reaching out to your Senators and asking them to join the Durbin letter in support of Prof. Yunus!

Join webinar on children and evictions. In October 2023, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published a study revealing that the Americans who are the most at risk of eviction are babies and toddlers, and that children under the age of 5 make up the largest group by age of people whose households have had an eviction action filed against them. The risk of eviction for all children under the age of 18 is consistently high. A new webinar will review the study’s findings and examine its implications for policies and practices to stabilize children, youth, and families. The webinar is Wednesday, January 30 at 3:00 pm ET. Register here.

Announcements

Join media office hour today. After the success of our Build the Buy-in media campaign, let’s start 2024 with media pushing lawmakers to end poverty. If you need help drafting, editing, or submitting new media, please join our Media Office Hour today, January 17, 2:00-3:00 pm ET. Come any time that hour with your questions. Join via Zoom at: https://results.zoom.us/j/93668005494 or (312) 626-6799, meeting ID: 936 6800 5494.

Important Anti-oppression Applied Learning Simulation coming up on January 19, 12 pm ET. Join us for the Tribunal on Residential Segregation and Environmental Racism. Participants will play various roles, analyzing the transformation of legal Jim-Crow segregation into the geographic segregation of affluent white suburbs and impoverished inner-city segregated area. Included in the discussion will be evidence of continuing racial disparities as inequality is currently perpetuated. Completion of our anti-oppression 101, 201, and 301 workshops is encouraged but not required. Our facilitator will be Dr. Christina Gunther, Ed.D., who volunteers with the RESULTS Coastal Connecticut group. She is also an assistant professor and chair of the Health Sciences Department at Sacred Heart University. Register today for this special 90-minute learning opportunity.

What is Quiet Leadership? Regional Coordinator Misty Novitch will be taking us through a two-part series on David Rock’s book Quiet Leadership. This is a potent and compelling coaching tool that provides you with resources to support others in their clarity of thinking. All advocates welcome. Register for the two-part Quiet Leadership training on January 25 and February 1 at 9 pm ET.

Upcoming Events

Congressional schedule: The House and Senate are in session this week.

Typically, registration ends one hour prior to the start of all webinars and trainings.

Tuesday, January 16: U.S. Poverty Free Agents, 1:00 pm ET and 8:00 pm ET. Contact Jos Linn for more information.

Wednesday, January 17: Media Office Hour, 2:00 pm ET. Join any time via Zoom at https://results.zoom.us/j/93668005494 or (312) 626-6799, meeting ID 936 6800 5494.

Wednesday, January 17: Together Women Rise advocacy chapter webinar, 8:30 pm ET. Learn more about this opportunity.

Friday, January 19: Anti-Oppression Applied Learning Simulation, 12:00 pm ET. Join us for this special 90-minute session.

Monday, January 22: Global Poverty Free Agents, 7:00 pm ET. Contact Lisa Marchal for more information.

Wednesday, January 24: Action Network Manager webinars, 12:30 pm ET and 8:00 pm ET. No registration necessary. Join via https://results.zoom.us/j/93412877476 or dial (312) 626-6799, meeting ID 934 1287 7476 for the 12:30 pm ET session. Join via https://results.zoom.us/j/98134593550 or dial (312) 626-6799, meeting ID 981 3459 3550 for the 8:00 pm ET session.

Wednesday, January 24: Community of Change Info Session, 8:30 pm ET. Read about this opportunity and register today.

Thursday, January 25: Quiet Leadership training series, 9:00 pm ET. Register for this two-part training series on coaching (finishing February 1).

Wednesday, January 31: New Advocate Orientation, 12:00 pm ET. Register to learn more about RESULTS.

Wednesday, January 31: Quarterly New Advocate Mentor Community Call, 8:00 pm ET. Join in by registering.

Saturday, February 3: National Webinar, 1:00 pm ET. Register for the webinar today!

Tuesday, February 6: Being a Congressional Point Person, 8:30 pm ET. Join in by registering.

Thursday, February 8: Outreach and Event Planning Office Hour, 2:00 pm ET. No registration necessary. Join via https://results.zoom.us/j/94004748060 or (312) 626-6799, meeting ID 940 0474 8060.

Thursday, February 8: Global Allies (Returned Peace Corps Volunteers) Monthly Webinar, 8:30 pm ET. Learn more.

Monday, February 19: RESULTS offices closed in observance of Presidents’ Day.

Grassroots Resources

Learn about the RESULTS Experts on Poverty.

Find actions and volunteer resources on our Volunteers Hub, including our anti-oppression resources. To join the RESULTS listserv for more RESULTS conversation, send an email to [email protected].

Remember to please report your recent advocacy successes in lobby meetings, media, and outreach activities. Also, use our Volunteer Information Form to add or edit volunteer info and to sign up for updates and alerts.

If you have a story about advocacy you feel could inspire others, use our new online form to tell us your story. Also, if you want to celebrate the actions of a new volunteer, sharing about the experience today.

If you have a question, comment, or suggestion for the RESULTS/REF Board, please e-mail [email protected]. View Board minutes and Annual Reports.

RESULTS Staff directory and job postings.