Child Tax Credit May Not Be Extended For Grosse Pointe Families

GROSSE POINTE, MI — Families with children in Grosse Pointe and across the country could lose thousands of dollars provided under the child tax credit if lawmakers in Washington can't reach a deal on President Joe Biden's $1.75 trillion economic plan by the end of the year.

Monthly child tax credit payments are set to expire after December if they are not extended with the passage of the president's "Build Back Better" plan. If lawmakers don't strike a deal by the end of the month, payments will return to pre-pandemic levels, experts said. That could mean big trouble for parents who have relied on the payments to help them get through tough times throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

The child tax credit was increased from $2,000 to $3,000 this past spring. Parents were eligible to receive monthly checks of $300 for kids under age 6 and $250 payments for children between 6 and 17. The program, which was enacted as part of the American Rescue Plan, also reached more children because it was fully refundable for eligible parents, CNBC reported.

Should the tax credit expire, a single mother earning minimum wage who received $6,600 for a second-grader through the child tax credit would see that drop to $1,800 next year, CNBC reported.

"You need a deadline. The end of the year, that's the focus in my mind," Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said, according to a Politico report. "It's as important a thing as there is in the Build Back Better [bill], and to me it was the most important thing we did in calendar '21. So it's essential and we're going to keep it."

The CNBC report indicated that 35 million families with 65 million kids have benefitted from the checks since the payments started. Monthly checks are scheduled to go out this week and could be the last such payment if lawmakers don't reach a compromise.

Extending the program would also continue to cut the child poverty rate, according to the CNBC report. The poverty rate dropped from 14.2 percent to 8.4 percent because of the child tax credit, according to a study completed by the Urban Institute. Experts believed that the funding allowed parents to work more while making sure their kids were fed and properly clothed while also allowing them to make ends meet.

Lawmakers, including Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia), hope a vote can be taken as early as this week. If the plan doesn't pass, politicians wonder what kind of effect its discontinuation would have on families, including those in communities hit hardest by the pandemic.

"We've got to push and remind people that there are impacts like the child tax credit if the bill doesn't pass by the end of the year," Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) said, according to the Politico report.

"I want to make sure everybody's keenly aware there are consequences of waiting."