Today, congress passed a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package that will cut child poverty and help households afford food and rent while the economy recovers from the pandemic. President Biden is expected to sign the bill this week.
The legislation extends a $300 per week jobless benefit boost and programs expanding unemployment aid to millions more Americans through September 6. It includes the stimulus payments, an expansion of the child tax credit, rental and utility assistance, and state, local and tribal government relief. The bill also puts more money into COVID-19 vaccine distribution and testing, along with K-12 schools and higher education institutions.
Over the years, Maiker has been a proponent of the American Family Act of 2019, which would reduce child poverty by overhauling the existing Child Tax Credit, making it a dramatically more effective tool for supporting low-income and middle-class families with kids. With the passage of the COVID-19 Relief Bill, we are finally seeing the core elements of the American Family Act materialize as a provision within the stimulus, albeit temporarily.
“Affordable housers have long known the power of investing in people,” says Peter LiFari. “This COVID-19 relief bill puts significant money into our Members pockets, helping them pay for daycare, pay their rent, feed their families, pay their rent and ultimately, change lives.”
Maiker encourages Congress to put forward new legislation later in the year to make the Child Tax Credit funding permanent; cutting childhood poverty in half is too powerful of an outcome to let sunset in just a few short month.
Learn more about the COVID-19 Relief Bill here.
