VIDEO: Watch their discussion HERE
Washington D.C.— Today, Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet discussed the benefits of the Child Tax Credit (CTC) expansion with Ambrosia Berg, his virtual guest for President Joe Biden’s joint address to Congress. Berg is a single mom from Boulder who will benefit from the one-year Child Tax Credit expansion passed in the American Rescue Plan.
Bennet and Berg Discussing Benefits of Child Tax Credit Expansion
“As I’ve traveled the state of Colorado over the past 10 or 11 years, it has become obvious to me that most people can’t support their families,” said Bennet. “That is the reflection of an economy that for 50 years has been a ‘just getting by’ economy for most Americans. And the thing that really discourages me is that we’ve got among the highest childhood poverty rates of any country in the industrialized world. I saw this as something that we shouldn’t accept as a permanent feature of our country. Now, I’m very pleased that Joe Biden has included the [expanded Child Tax Credit] in the plan that he’s announcing tonight.”
“From personal experience, I know that families living in poverty already face so many challenges,” said Berg. “So for me, the expansion of the Child Tax Credit means that my family will have more of a stepping stone to get ahead in a ‘just getting by’ world.”
Berg continued: “[The expanded Child Tax Credit] would help me provide the essentials like food, housing, and reliable transportation while also helping me maintain a nurturing environment for my son to develop into a successful member of the community.”
Berg is a single mom raising an 11-year-old son in Boulder. She graduated from high school in Aurora and was heading to Boulder to start her freshman year at the University of Colorado when she realized she was pregnant. Through determination and hard work, she completed her undergraduate degree in Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences and earned a certificate in LGBT Studies in eight years while working and raising her son. Berg is involved in many different local community groups and committees that work to help parents like her become self-sufficient. Bennet met Berg during a recent visit to the Emergency Family Assistance Association in Boulder. The nonprofit helped her stay in school and live in the community she’s come to call home.
President Biden’s American Families Plan, released today, includes extending the Child Tax Credit increases in the American Rescue Plan through 2025 and making the Child Tax Credit permanently fully refundable, so the poorest families can access it. Senator Bennet believes that any final infrastructure bill should make the entire Child Tax Credit permanent, and will work with the administration and colleagues in Congress to ensure it is included.
The expanded CTC is projected to cut child poverty in America by nearly half in one year. It would lift 57,000 kids in Colorado out of poverty and benefit over 1 million kids statewide, including nearly 350,000 kids who had been left out of the full CTC prior to the American Rescue Plan. The expansion of the CTC in the American Rescue Plan is modeled after the American Family Act, which Bennet first introduced in 2017 with U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio).
After the American Rescue Plan became law, Bennet led more than 40 Senate colleagues to urge President Biden to make the bill’s one-year tax credit expansions permanent as part of his recovery and infrastructure plan. Bennet will continue to work with his colleagues and the Biden administration to make the CTC expansion permanent to create lasting change for America’s kids and families.