This holiday season Congress should give America’s kids a life-changing gift. Congress should make permanent the expanded child tax credit (CTC). This CTC expansion would be a crucial step toward ending child hunger in America.
As President Harry Truman said, “No nation is any healthier than its children.” The expanded child tax credit payments allow families to spend more money on their kids, helping them get food and other essentials. The expanded child tax credit is the difference maker for many families escaping hunger and poverty. The CTC improves the health of America’s kids.
We know that the expanded child tax credit works because it was highly successful when it operated during 2021. Families got monthly checks for each child, and this was an increase over any help they received from the regular child tax credit.
According to the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) the “CTC’s advanced monthly payments from July to December 2021 helped families put food on the table, and cover debt payments, childcare costs, and housing costs.”
The expanded CTC eventually expired but not before it revealed its positive impact and why it should continue.
“Extending these tax credits should be a no-brainer,” said Luis Guardia, president of FRAC. “During the pandemic, the expanded Child Tax Credit succeeded in helping tens of millions of families with children afford food and other basic needs. We can’t turn our backs on these families now. We have the tools we need to end hunger and reduce childhood poverty in this country. We just need the political will.”
The expanded child tax credit is a key force in reducing hunger. A Columbia University study showed that the expanded CTC reduced food insufficiency by 19% among families with children. According to Brookings, the CTC made it more likely families could spend money on nutritious foods like fruits and vegetables.
When the CTC expired and the payments stopped the opposite took place. Hunger in America increased. Researchers from the Boston University School of Public Health and Boston Medical Center revealed that after the expanded CTC policy ended “there was a substantial increase in the percentage of U.S. households with children that could not afford enough food.”
The expanded child tax credit is especially important to rural families who do not get the full benefit from the current regular child tax credit.
Sara Calame of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities explains “The current Child Tax Credit shortchanges 1 in 3 children living in rural communities. Policymakers should come together to expand the Child Tax Credit in year-end legislation, especially for children in families with low incomes who are currently denied the full credit.”
The expanded child tax credit becomes even more important during tough economic times and inflation. The expanded CTC can take some of the strain off foodbanks by reducing demand for assistance.
If families can spend more money on nutritious foods, they can keep their kids from going hungry. They can focus more on children’s education instead of worrying about whether they can afford food or pay rent.
Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio is among the leaders advocating for expanding the CTC. Brown says the “Child Tax Credit is the most consequential thing we have done to make people’s hard work pay off in decades. We know how hard parents’ work, we know how expensive it is to raise kids, and we know workers’ wages haven’t kept up with the cost of child care and health care and housing and all the big items in families’ budgets.”
The expanded Child Tax Credit, along with an expansion of the free school lunch program and summer feeding, would do wonders for American families. We would be on the road toward ending child hunger in America.
This holiday Congress should give American families and their kids a gift by making permanent the expanded child tax credit.
William Lambers is an author who partnered with the UN World Food Program on the book “Ending World Hunger.”