Victory for Children: Payroll Tax Bill’s Passage Preserves Child Tax Credit

Washington – Last week both chambers of Congress passed a bipartisan package to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance through the end of the year, an important win for families and communities across the country. The legislation did not include proposed restrictions to the Child Tax Credit (CTC) that would have cost low-income immigrant families an average of $1,800 annually, impacting up to 5.5 million children. In response to the bill’s passage without this harmful provision, First Focus Campaign for Children President Bruce Lesley issued the following statement:

“Every year, the Child Tax Credit protects millions of kids from falling into poverty, so protecting it is an important victory for children and families. We applaud Majority Leader Harry Reid for his leadership in defending the CTC and for standing firm to ensure that our children do not bear the brunt of our economic problems. And we commend lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for recognizing that, with child poverty at a twenty-year high, we should not be making it harder for parents to meet kids’ basic needs.”

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