Congress voted last year to help hardworking Americans make ends meet by expanding the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit. But the expansions to these critical tax credits will disappear if Congress does not act soon.

Contact your representative today to demand that they don’t let improvements to these credits expire.

Refundable tax credits like the EITC and CTC help ensure that work pays more than welfare, but they are at risk of losing much of their effectiveness. If Congress does not extend the improvements to the programs, a parent who works full time in a minimum wage position will have his or her annual credit reduced from $1,800 to $320 at the end of 2010. This would have a devastating effect on children in low-income families.

Research conducted by the Tax Policy Center reveals that 8 million children would lose the tax credit entirely if Congress allows the current Child Tax Credit improvements to expire, and an additional 10 million children would lose some of the credit. This change would lead as many as 600,000 more children to become poor and 4 million already poor children to fall deeper into poverty, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

We must stand up to preserve the 2009 reforms to the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit. But there is room for additional federal leadership, as well. If the current improvement expires, a family’s first $13,000 in wages will not count toward calculating the Child Tax Credit. Congress should change the law so that all earnings count in calculating the credit. A family with two children will receive $2,000 if full-time, year-round minimum wage earnings are all counted; but the same family will receive only $312 if the improvements expire.

Contact your representative today to preserve and improve these essential programs.

Call your representative TODAY: 1-877-442-6801, toll-free. Ask them to support a final jobs bill that:

• Extends unemployment insurance and COBRA health benefits
• Provides relief to states in the form of Medicaid funding
• Extends the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Emergency Fund, which is slated to expire on September 30
• Includes funding for youth summer jobs

You can read a quick explanation of what’s in the bill and why each piece is important or listen to a podcast with more information.

Read more »

Every year, we look to Congress to pass a budget resolution. The resolution defines our country’s fiscal priorities for the year and sets the framework for the federal government’s spending decisions. This framework is essential for laying the groundwork to pursue key antipoverty policies such as job creation, the earned income tax credit, and child care.

President Barack Obama’s budget request for fiscal year 2011 offered a good model, with investments in child care and expanded tax credits for low-income families. But we are hearing murmurs around Washington, D.C. that Congress may not even pass a budget resolution this year. And if they do, deficit peacocks may make a show of fiscal responsibility—without making much of a dent on deficits—by tightening the president’s already strict limit on non-defense discretionary spending, which funds critical antipoverty initiatives.

Tell your members of Congress to pass a budget that reflects the principles of shared economic recovery! Read more »

On March 26, 2010, 9:30am – 11:00am please join the Center for American Progress’s Doing What Works project and the Half in Ten campaign (a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and the Coalition on Human Needs) for a panel discussion on how innovative policymakers are already reshaping the antipoverty safety net, and what additional steps government must take to reform antipoverty programs.

Click here to learn more, RSVP or watch the live webcast the day of the event.
Read more »

The U.S. Census Bureau announced that it will be developing an alternative way to measure poverty. This new method will better reflect the realities facing struggling families and ways in which current government programs can help them to get back on their feet. Unlike the traditional poverty measure, which is based in a 1960s reality, this supplemental measure will provide a more accurate accounting of household budgets and better determination of whether a family has enough resources to meet its most basic needs.

Why an alternative federal poverty measure will drive smarter policies to bring more families into the middle class

By Melissa Boteach and Jitinder Kohli

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it,” said New York City Mayor and business magnate Michael Bloomberg in 2007 describing the need for an updated poverty measure.

Now it seems he is getting his wish. The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that it will be developing an alternative way to measure poverty. This new method will better reflect the realities facing struggling families and ways in which current government programs can help them to get back on their feet. Unlike the traditional poverty measure, which is based in a 1960s reality, this supplemental measure will provide a more accurate accounting of household budgets and better determination of whether a family has enough resources to meet its most basic needs.

The Census Bureau has published a number of different alternative poverty data for many years and will continue to do so. But this new measure will accommodate updated research and modeling, and will be released alongside the traditional poverty data in 2011, ushering in a new public understanding of how well we are doing in ensuring that more families are able to meet basic needs and ultimately to join the middle class.

The new measure is not designed to replace the traditional measure. Eligibility for more than 80 public benefits is tied in some form to the current federal poverty measure, which will continue to be a useful tool in administering programs. Issuing a supplemental measure will not change eligibility for any government benefits or in and of itself cost the government one penny in additional poverty program expenditures.

Read more »

More than a million and a half Americans could lose their jobs if the Senate does not act soon. Millions of Americans will immediately lose their unemployment insurance benefits if the Senate doesn’t act to extend unemployment insurance and COBRA subsidies by the end of next week. And state and local governments are slashing budgets, getting ready to lay off firefighters, police officers, and teachers.

Our country cannot afford the job loss that will come from inaction. Every dollar of unemployment insurance benefits creates $1.90 of stimulus in the community. Our country will lose another 800,000 jobs if the Senate’s inaction cuts off benefits.

And if the Senate acts now, federal aid could also save jobs in essential public safety, education, and health services provided by state and local governments.

Your senators need to hear that now is not the time to procrastinate.

Demand that the Senate vote immediately to save jobs by extending UI benefits and COBRA subsidies through the end of 2010 and by providing aid to state and local governments.

The Senate is considering legislation to spur job creation, but it isn’t clear if the bill will include policies to create jobs for the communities that have been hit the hardest in this recession. There are three provisions that can create or save over 2 million jobs in low-income and minority communities while helping the economy overall and lifting up all Americans.

Call your senator today at (202) 224-3121 and ask them to support a jobs package that includes:

• extension of unemployment benefits and the COBRA health insurance subsidy through the end of 2010 by February 19.
• investment in direct job creation that addresses long-neglected needs in communities.
• aid to states and localities to prevent further job losses and service cuts.

Read more »