Representative Adriano Espaillat Highlights Impact of Child Tax Credit on District Families

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Today, Representative Adriano Espaillat (NY-13) marked the first time in six months that families will not receive the expanded and improved monthly Child Tax Credit by calling for the passage of the Build Back Better Act.

On December 15th, over two million payments went out to hardworking families across New York. According to Columbia University, these monthly payments are reducing food insecurity, and families overwhelmingly spent this money on food and other basic needs.

“Prior to the passage of the American Rescue Plan, too many children and families who would benefit most from a Child Tax Credit were left behind,” said Rep. Espaillat. “Now, after six months of payments, the evidence is clear. The expanded and improved monthly Child Tax Credit works. Through these payments, Democrats and the Biden Administration provided a lifeline for the middle class—the biggest middle-class tax cut we have seen in a generation—and lifted over 50 percent of children out of poverty all while fighting inflation. Today is the first time in six months that families will not have access to this transformational monthly benefit. Those families are thrown back into financial insecurity, food insecurity, and poverty. We cannot let the progress New York families made thanks to the American Rescue Plan end here.”

"CDF-NY thanks U.S. Rep. Espaillat for voting in support of the Build Back Better Act in November 2021 and joins him in calling for the immediate continuation of the expanded Child Tax Credit. As a Harlem resident, I am well-aware of the financial insecurity of many of my neighbors. There are children and families in Harlem and East Harlem who are on a food and housing insecurity cliff. ,” said Kercena A. Dozier, Executive Director of the Children’s Defense Fund – New York and resident of Congressional District 13. “If the Senate does not pass the Build Back Better Act, the monthly expanded Child Tax Credit check New York families received in December will have been their last, and 681,000 New York children may be plunged back into poverty. In the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, child poverty is a stain on our country’s moral conscience and on its reputation for economic prosperity. It is past time that our elected leaders take bold, permanent action to enable short and long-term economic security for marginalized children and families in communities like mine.”

Over the long term, research has found that an extra $3,000 in a family’s annual income when a child is younger than five leads to 19% higher future earnings, and a growing body of academic research finds that public investments in children yield significant long-term returns with economy-wide benefits, as healthier, more educated kids grow up to be more productive workers with higher earnings. This, in turn, also generates higher future revenues.

“We have the opportunity to lock in this Social Security for children,” continued Rep. Espaillat. “We must pass the Build Back Better Act and extend the Child Tax Credit.”