LANSING, Mich. — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel joined 23 other attorneys general on Friday in urging Congress to permanently extend the expanded Child Tax Credit in the upcoming reconciliation package.
They say it would provide “a proven and systemic solution that would lift millions of children out of poverty.”
“Permanently extending the Child Tax Credit would benefit millions of families and would significantly reduce child poverty rates in Michigan and across the country,” Nessel said. “We are calling on Congress to make this permanent extension a priority in the upcoming reconciliation package.”
The coalition highlighted a report by Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy, which estimated that the benefits from the American Rescue Plan – largely from the expanded Child Tax Credit – would reduce child poverty rates in Michigan by 43.9%.
“A permanent, expanded, fully refundable CTC would lift about half of poor children out of poverty and bring myriad benefits to millions of children and their families, from better infant health to improved chances of finishing high school, enrolling in post-secondary programs and earning higher incomes in adulthood,” the coalition said in a news release. “States would benefit from these effects as well as from increased consumer spending in state and local economies and decreased government spending on costs such as health care and special education.”
The coalition also wants to see Congress provide “sufficient” funding to raise public awareness about the Child Tax Cred and make the sign-up process easier to navigate.
Along with Nessel, the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin signed the letter.
