The annual federal child tax credit will shrink in half at the end of the year, falling to $1,000 if Congress does not intervene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of the Democrats in the U.S. Senate, including Georgia\u2019s Raphael Warnock, are calling not only to prevent that from happening but also to permanently expand the credit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Legislation introduced\u00a0Wednesday\u00a0by Sen. Mchael Bennet, D-Colo., would increase the annual credit to $4,320 for parents with a child aged 5 and under and to $3,600 for each child aged 6 through 17. It would also offer a one-time $2,400 \u201cbaby bonus\u201d to parents of newborns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is about attacking poverty in our country and ensuring that the government isn\u2019t taxing people into poverty,\u201d said Warnock, who is among more than 40 other Senate Democrats co-sponsoring the bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Crucially, no members of the Senate\u2019s Republican majority have signed onto the measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tax credit was temporarily expanded in 2021 as part of the American Rescue Plan, which got no votes from Republicans in Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But last year, J.D. Vance, then running for vice president, floated the idea of doubling<\/a> the credit. And Republican state lawmakers in Georgia demonstrated that the GOP can get behind such policies when, in bipartisan votes, they passed House Bill 136 this year to establish a $250 per child state credit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Child tax credits are growing in popularity as an effective way to support families, according to the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, a left-leaning group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After Congress temporarily expanded the credit in 2021, the child poverty rate for children under 6 fell nearly in half, from 9.8% to 5.3%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau<\/a>. The poverty rate for older children fell to 5.2% from 8.9%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n