DeLauro to GOP: Do not lie to families struggling to pay rent and put food on the table about the expanded Child Tax Credit

Today, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) released a statement responding to a resolution moved by House Republicans that falsely claims to expand the Child Tax Credit:

"I want Americans to understand what Republicans are claiming - and what they are actually delivering - to families.

"For decades, I have fought to make the Child Tax Credit what it was always meant to be: a monthly economic lifeline that meets families where they are, lifts children out of poverty, and reflects the real cost of raising a child today. My American Family Act would provide more than $6,000 per year for a newborn and more than $3,000 a year to kids through the age of 18, it is paid monthly, and it makes the credit fully refundable, meaning the poorest families, the ones who need it most, are able to claim the Child Tax Credit.

"What Republicans have done is raise the credit a pathetic $200. And not one cent of that goes to the lowest-income families in this country, because they do not earn enough. These are families with young children, single-parent households, grandparents raising their grandchildren, military families, and large families (those with three or more children). The largest share of benefits from their so-called expansion flows to the wealthiest American families. The poorest get zero. The 2021 expanded, monthly Child Tax Credit under the American Rescue Plan was the largest middle-class tax cut in a generation. Under my American Family Act, middle-class, working, and poor, families-90 percent of all kids-will all get the same monthly payments.

"Worse, they are now wrapping this $200 bump in the language of the very movement I have led for years - invoking inflation indexing, invoking expansion - as if small pieces borrowed from the American Family Act is the same thing as passing it. It is not. It is a political sleight of hand designed to give Republican members cover without giving American parents and children relief.

"Monthly payments? No. All kids eligible? No. A Child Tax Credit that reaches families in poverty? Absolutely not.

"Do not lie to families struggling to pay rent and put food on the table about the expanded Child Tax Credit. What Republicans gave working families amounts to nothing, all while they gleefully handed over $4 trillion to millionaires, billionaires, and the biggest corporations."

You can find information on how much more families in each state would receive under DeLauro's American Family Act here.