Statement on Proposed Child Tax Credit for Washington DC
Below is an excerpt from a public comment submitted to the DC City Council in reference to DC Bill 25-0190 in January, 2024.
I strongly support a proposal to implement a Child Tax Credit (CTC) in Washington DC by $500 per child under the age of 18 and $1000 per child under the age of 6.
This proposed CTC for DC is roughly half the size of the temporary expansion of the federal tax credit that was enacted in 2021 as part of the American Rescue Plan Act. Accordingly, it will generate some, though not all, of the benefits for children associated with that expansion – especially those in families with low incomes.
In particular, the federal CTC expansion reduced child poverty by several points, as measured by the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM). Food insecurity and other sources of “toxic stress” among children appeared to decline as well (Ananat et al., 2022; Fenton, 2023). The smaller increase in the CTC in Washington DC would likely generate some, though not all, of the same benefits for children.