Call Congress and urge your representative to support the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act (H.R. 1106), which would assist in stabilizing our economy by letting homeowners modify their mortgages in bankruptcy court and reduce foreclosures.

The 650,000 job difference: Although the two bills cost about the same (more than $800 billion each), the House bill saves/creates hundreds of thousands more jobs because it provides more aid to states to prevent education and other important services from being cut. The House bill also creates jobs by investing more to renovate low-income housing and to support community services including Head Start. Most important, the House bill also provides more help to millions more low-income families through the Child Tax Credit. The Senate bill does less in these areas and spends more on tax breaks that mostly benefit those with high incomes.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes many initiatives that help people in poverty, including home weatherization funds, UIMA, and child care. This essential legislation also includes a much needed expansion of the Child Tax Credit. Under current law, the Child Tax Credit gives up to $1,000 per child to households with kids—but it currently leaves out millions of children in the lowest income families. We need your help to increase support to these children.

Together, we call on the Senate to support the recovery package today, with the House position on the Child Tax Credit. If it does, children, families, and working Americans across the country will benefit from essential programs that are among the most effective forms of stimulus.

The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights encourages the Senate to pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to provide tax cuts targeted at low income people, provide SNAP benefits and a one-time increase in Supplemental Security Income, increase aid to states, extend unemployment insurance, and increase funds for schools and job training.

The UIMA would eliminate barriers and allow more workers, especially low wage workers, women workers, part-time workers, and the long-term unemployed, collect benefits. It would help more than 500,000 additional unemployed workers and their families get the unemployment insurance they have spent their working lives contributing towards.

Your calls are urgently needed.People opposed to President Obama’s approach have organized calls against it. This plan recognizes what economists have told the nation:  providing direct help such as food stamps and jobless benefits to low-income people jumpstarts the economy because they spend the money quickly; state aid prevents more harm to the economy and to people; investments such as school repair and energy efficiency projects create jobs. Your Senators need to know you support this balanced approach.

If you don’t act now, the Obama economic recovery plan, which creates and saves millions of jobs, protects people from hardship, and invests in shared prosperity, could be derailed.

Please join a national call today, Feb. 2 at 4pm eastern time (3pm central, 2pm mountain, 1pm pacific).

Call your Senators!
866-544-7573 (toll-free)

The message to Senators:

Please vote for the economic recovery bill and oppose delaying tactics.  Our state needs the jobs that will be saved; our people need its protections against hunger, sickness and unemployment.  We need to rebuild our schools and roads.  Please vote for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

A House proposal to increase the Child Tax Credit for families with very low earnings would help more than 13 million children—and helping them will produce jobs and boost the economy. But the Senate so far has proposed placing the minimum earnings requirement at $6,000, which will help far fewer children and deny the credit to the poorest of them. If you are authorized to do so, please sign your organization’s name to a letter that urges Congress to help more poor families with children in the economic recovery legislation it will soon enact.

In order to start cutting poverty in half, one of Half in Ten’s first priorities is to expand the Child Tax Credit to help millions of poor children in America. Current law denies the CTC to millions of poor children and their families simply because they earn too little to owe federal income tax. The House has approved H.R. 6049, expanding the CTC, and now it’s time for the Senate to do the same and help millions of children.

Over 1,300 activists signed this petition to urge Sen. Baucus to expand the Child Tax Credit to families making $8,500 per year. On July 25, along with Majority Leader Reid, Sen. Baucus introduced a tax bill with this expansion of the CTC. Thanks for all your help!