By Kemi Osukoya
February 19, 2025
President Donald Trump will support bringing back expanded federal child tax credit to help alleviate the high living costs of inflation for low and moderate-earning working families with young children if new legislation is proposed by Congress, a Senior White House Official told the Africa Bazaar magazine.
The move, which is part of the Trump administration’s efforts to address some of the economic challenges many individuals and families are facing due to the high costs of living and high inflation, could also include providing affordable childcare.
However, for the President to consider it, the new bill will have to include the right number of dollars, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the matter.
Child poverty fell to a historic low of 5.2% in 2021, largely due to the expanded federal CTC
If Congress proposes a new expanded federal CTC bill, it would revive one of the most successful tax programs proven to have reduced childhood poverty and food insecurity significantly in recent decades across the nation. As U.S. Census data revealed, 2.9 million children were lifted out of poverty in 2021 by the temporary expanded federal CTC implemented under the American Rescue Plan.
A Center on Poverty and Social Policy report “Children Left Behind by the Child Tax Credit in 2022” shows child poverty fell to a historic low of 5.2% in 2021, largely due to the expanded federal CTC.
The ARP increased the yearly federal CTC to $3,600 per child under six years old and $3000 for children between seven and 17 years old and gave low and middle-income families with a child or multiple children the option to receive advanced monthly tax credit payments of up to $300 or $250 per qualifying child based on a calculation using their prior year income to determine the refundable amount eligible for. It also expanded payments to non-working families.
After the expanded monthly CTC expired at the end of 2021, a group of bipartisan members of Congress tried to revive it but to no avail. Since then, data has shown a 25 percent increase in food insecurity among families with young children ages.
Last year, a bicameral bipartisan $76 billion bill, which included a newly expanded federal child tax credit with provisions that would have adjusted the CTC for inflation beginning in tax year 2023—for example, working families with lower income and multiple children would qualify for a larger portion of the credit for a maximum refund of $1,800 in 2023, $1,900 in 2024, and $2,000 in 2025 using prior year income to calculate eligibility, was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives but failed in the U.S. Senate.
If it had passed, it would have guaranteed the CTC for working families for a few more years. The CTC is at stake of elimination if Congress does not act before the year-end.
Preserving the federal CTC for families with young children will go a long way to support the President Trump’s overall economic agenda to help working families as well as his pro-life and pro-family agenda
While some states like Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New Jersey, Oregon, Utah, and Vermont, have implemented their own expanded child tax credits, experts warn that the current federal CTC, which was introduced in 1997 for working families, is set to expire at the end of this year unless Congress act. Although it received bipartisan support when it was established, it’s always the devil in the details that could stall the new bill from getting passed.
Economists and policy experts told the Africa Bazaar that it is important for the Trump administration to work with Congress to preserve the federal CTC for families with young children, which will go a long way to support the President’s overall economic agenda to help working families, including his school choice program as well as his pro-life and pro-family agenda, which will please his religious supporters.
This news was first published exclusively in the Africa Bazaar Daily Newsletter
