Today, the Biden Administration announced the first disbursement of monthly expanded Child Tax Credit payments to middle- and low-income families with children. Janai Nelson, Associate Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (“LDF”), issued the following statement in response:
“We applaud the Biden Administration for taking this important step towards tackling one of the most pervasive injustices in our nation — child poverty. Today, over 35 million families received their first payment of up to $300 per child as part of the expanded Child Tax Credit provision in the American Rescue Plan. This investment in our nation’s families is historic and worth celebrating; the tax relief will cut America’s child poverty rate by half over the next year, help lift millions of people out of poverty, and is projected to reduce the disproportionately high rates of poverty experienced by Black and Brown people in our country.
“Significantly, the monthly Child Tax Credit payments will provide urgently needed support to Black families who have historically been shut out of federal social relief initiatives that enabled many Americans to amass generational wealth. And while the COVID-19 pandemic increased economic insecurity for millions of people across the country, it continues to have an outsized impact on Black Americans who have disproportionately suffered from unemployment and loss of housing. These payments come at a time when the need for poverty alleviation measures, in the world’s wealthiest nation, could not be more evident. The Biden Administration’s laudable commitment to providing tax relief to middle- and low-income families is evidence of how legislation and policy can be leveraged for the benefit of all Americans.”
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Founded in 1940, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is the nation’s first civil and human rights law organization. LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the NAACP Legal Defense Fund or LDF. Follow LDF on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
