The Leadership Conference Celebrates the Bipartisan Passage of H.R. 7024, Calls on Senate to Urgently Pass the Child Tax Credit Expansion

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mattie Goldman, [email protected]

WASHINGTON – Jesselyn McCurdy, executive vice president for government affairs at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, released the following statement on the passage of H.R. 7024 in the House:

“The passage of H.R. 7024 — the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024 — is a crucial first step in addressing an urgently needed expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC). Although the legislation does not expand the CTC to the full extent needed, it would make meaningful progress toward reducing child poverty and help millions of families afford essentials like food, rent, and child care.

“CTC expansion is a proven way to address the wealth gap for Black and Latino children — an urgent civil rights crisis that perpetuates a cycle of poverty among low-income families of color. While there is more work to be done, we welcome this progress for the roughly 16 million children in families with low incomes who would benefit from the expansion in the first year, including more than one-third of all Black and Latino children under 17. Now that it has passed the House, we call on the Senate to swiftly pass this bipartisan tax package. The Senate must act now to prioritize the expansion of the CTC as a crucial step toward building a more just and equitable society.”

In the fall of 2023, The Leadership Conference, along with Black Women’s Roundtable, NAACP, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), National Action Network, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, National Urban League, and UnidosUS sent a letter to Congress urging Child Tax Credit expansion.

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights is a coalition charged by its diverse membership of more than 240 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States. The Leadership Conference works toward an America as good as its ideals. For more information on The Leadership Conference and its member organizations, visit www.civilrights.org.

###