, Columnist
America Is Choosing to Keep Children in Poverty
The Child Tax Credit worked, but Congress is letting it die anyway.
Fighting poverty requires cash, too.
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The 117th Congress accomplished something that none of its 116 predecessors managed to do so effectively or quickly: It halved child poverty. Specifically, for six months in 2021, it lifted 2.9 million children out of poverty by temporarily expanding the Child Tax Credit.
With less than two weeks left in their term, legislators appear ready to abandon that progress permanently.