Amidst the growing child poverty in the country, different church leaders backed a campaign to urge lawmakers to make the child tax credit to low-income families permanent after Congress allowed it to end last year.
According to Religion News Service, a coalition of church leaders backed an advertisement in Politico Magazine and sent a letter to all 535 members of Congress and the White House, asking them to include a "widely accessible version of the child tax credit" as lawmakers were tackling the budget reconciliation process.
The church leaders suggested that passing a reconciliation bill without permanent and fully refundable Child Tax Credit would be "morally indefensible."
The campaign was spearheaded by Rev. Jim Wallis and Georgetown University's Center on Faith and Justice. Its signers include Rev. Walter Kim, head of the National Association of Evangelicals; Most Rev. Michael B. Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church; Rev. Eugene Cho, president of Bread for the World; and Rev. Amy Reumann, director of advocacy for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Rev. Barbara Williams-Skinner, a co-chair of the National African American Clergy Network, also signed the letter, as did Mary Novak, head of the Catholic social justice lobby Network, and John Carr, founder of Georgetown's Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life.
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Battling Child Poverty
The Christian leaders regarded the last year's expanded version of financial assistance as it was an effective tool to reduce child poverty, especially during the pandemic. Both political parties came down with up to $300 monthly support for U.S. families.
However, it expired in December last year when lawmakers junked the Build Back Better Act. Senator Joe Manchin agreed to expand the provision of child tax credit given that parents must have work and have income below the minimum to acquire federal income tax. Manchin received backslash from the faith-leaning organization because of his proposal. They argued that poverty looms among families who have unemployed parents. Given the poor situation, they said that these families needed more support for their children.
Child poverty increased up to 41% after the expanded financial support ended, according to researchers of Columbia University. The Christian leaders aimed to lower child poverty by 20% if Lawmakers would agree to their proposal to make the $2,000 credit refundable and allow unemployed parents the assistance. "If the credit is made fully refundable, these children would receive the full credit amount," the letter reads. Referencing the Gospel of Matthew, they said the importance of taking care of the least.
Their letter also indicated how some lawmakers were considering giving tax incentives to big corporations but were slow in combatting child poverty. They noted that it's wrong to prioritize cutting taxes for corporations over tax breaks for middle and poor families.
On May 19, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops also sent a letter addressed to Congress, appealing to them for the extension of the child tax credit. They stated that addressing poverty should be given the highest priority.
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