Washington, D.C. – Today, Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet called for an extension of the expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC) to help families cover rising costs in a speech on the Senate floor. As Tax Day approaches on April 18, Bennet also highlighted that eligible families can claim the second half of their expanded CTC — as well as their full expanded Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) — by filing their 2021 tax return.
“[The expanded Child Tax Credit] is a pro-work policy,” said Bennet in his speech. “It’s a pro-family policy. It’s a pro-democracy policy. And we now know it worked and it worked well…we’ve got to fight to make it permanent. And that’s what I’ll do.”
“Last year…we adopted the expanded Child Tax Credit,” said Bennet. “We discovered that we didn’t have to accept a world where the poorest people in our country were our children. We benefited 61 million kids in the United States — 90% of the children in Colorado…We cut childhood poverty nearly in half. We cut hunger by a quarter for families with kids during a pandemic.”
“120 economists [today] sent an open letter saying that, ‘the expanded Child Tax Credit is one of the easiest, most effective and direct tools currently at our disposal to help families deal with the impact of inflation on family budgets,’” said Bennet. “Economic inequality has only gotten staggeringly worse in this country…And I can tell you, Mr. President, that our kids pay the highest price from this.”
“…What I really want is an economy that when it grows, it grows for everybody,” said Bennet. “Because that’s the American Dream. That’s the story we’ve told ourselves about who we are as a people. And that’s the way to strengthen our democracy…In the meantime, what I would like us to do…is lift half the kids of this country out of poverty so they have a chance to pursue the American Dream themselves.”
In March 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act (APRA) expanded the CTC based on Bennet’s American Family Act, along with the EITC, based on Bennet’s Working Families Tax Relief Act with U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), and the CDCTC. Millions of families received monthly installments of the CTC last year, including 27 million children previously excluded from the full credit because their families’ incomes were too low.
Today, more than 120 economists urged Congress to extend the CTC to help families in the face of rising costs. As Coloradans continue to face cost increases, Bennet is fighting to make this expansion permanent.
Bennet’s full speech is available HERE.