In the News

Parents would receive monthly checks, even after this year is over, under President Joe Biden’s forthcoming multitrillion-dollar plan for American families.

If made permanent, the payments could amount to one of the most consequential policy changes of Biden’s presidency, finally bringing the U.S. into the ranks of other advanced nations that pay parents a monthly child allowance. 

But it’s not clear if Biden will propose a permanent benefit or offer another short-term extension. 

The Biden administration has yet to finalize details for the so-called American Families Plan, a major proposal that will address child care needs, paid leave and long-term care. 

Economic advisers initially planned on a four-year extension of the child tax credit that would expire in 2025, The Washington Post first reported and HuffPost confirmed with two administration officials.

However, the White House has been under pressure to make the benefit a permanent fixture of the nation’s welfare system. 

The administration would not publicly confirm the details, which are expected to be announced ahead of Biden’s congressional address Wednesday. 

Democrats significantly increased the child tax credit in March as part of the American Rescue Plan, which raised the value of the credit for families making $150,000 or less. That law also told the IRS to pay the money in advance, essentially transforming the credit into a child allowance.

Starting sometime after July 1, the IRS will send monthly checks to parents worth as much as $300 per child, or $3,600 per year. 

Parents will stop receiving those checks after this year if Congress doesn’t pass another bill to continue them. Democrats have said all along that they would pass another bill to keep the checks going to families and that they would use the budget reconciliation process to bypass Senate Republicans if they had to. 

Democrats have been calling on Biden to include the credit and other progressive priorities in his next proposal. Reps. Suzan DelBene (Wash.), Rosa DeLauro (Conn.) and Ritchie Torres (N.Y.), along with Sens. Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Cory Booker (N.J.) and Michael Bennet (Col.), last week called the child credit expansion “the most significant policy to come out of Washington in generations, and Congress has an historic opportunity to provide a lifeline to the middle class and to cut child poverty in half on a permanent basis.”