Vice President Kamala Harris is set to visit New Haven this Friday as part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s “Here to Help” tour, showcasing the way the American Rescue Plan will benefit communities throughout the country.
After visiting New Haven, Harris will go to West Haven’s Child Development Center just after 4:30 p.m. The end of her trip will conclude at 6:45 p.m. when she leaves from Tweed-New Haven Airport, according to FOX61.
Harris is expected to speak on the American Relief Plan, which will provide local governments with up to $350 billion dollars in emergency funding, including a tax credit of up to $3,600 per child to low-income families.
The credit was included in the bill at the push of Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT 3rd District). It aims to “substantially reduce child poverty by supplementing the earnings of families receiving the credit” and could potentially cut child poverty in half.
In his presidential campaign, Biden voiced support for implementing a child tax credit for American families in need. In early February, the American Relief Plan’s maximum benefit of $2,000 per child was increased to $3,600. The plan also widened the age range, extending the credit from children 16 and younger to 17 and younger.
DeLauro has been fighting for this credit for 18 years, and it is finally seeing the light of day.
“I am looking forward to Vice President Kamala Harris’ visit to Connecticut and introducing her to some of the children and hardworking families whose lives have been forever changed by COVID-19. The American Rescue Plan provides historic, transformational relief to Connecticut’s families, and I am thrilled to be joining the Vice President for part of the Biden Administration’s ‘Help is Here’ tour. With relief for our child care centers and historic provisions to expand and improve the Child Tax Credit, legislation I have been fighting for since 2003, this package forever changes the way that our nation supports both middle-class families and children in poverty.”
DeLauro said in a comment to HQNN.
Associate professor of political science at Quinnipiac University, Jennifer Sacco credits DeLauro for her hard work pushing for this legislation.
“This is really her legislation, her policy that has been enacted into law,” she said. “It’s a tribute to her and the work that she did that the Vice President will come to New Haven tomorrow to begin to promote the benefits of the American Relief Plan.”
Sacco explained the determinants of poverty on a child when stressing the importance of enacting policies like the Child Tax Credit.
“Even a short amount of time spent in poverty on a child has life-long influences on them. It really is significant and troublesome … It is not a minor thing,” she said.
Sean Grace, chair of Hamden’s Democratic Town Committee, says the Vice President’s visit is a testament to DeLauro’s hard work. He also stressed the importance of drafting more legislation to try and end poverty.
“We need bills like this, bills that will lift even a single person out of poverty with the stroke of a pen,” he said.
Lauren Garrett, former Hamden councilwoman, views Harris’s visit as a show of appreciation for DeLauro.
“It’s a show of strength that DeLauro has been pushing for this for so long. It’s a thank you tour for all of Rosa DeLauro’s hard work,” Garrett said.
Garrett also said the tax credit is a necessity for Connecticut families.
“About 40% of all families in Hamden live below the ALICE Threshold,” she said. “We need to be doing as much as we can to help lift families out of poverty.”
The ALICE Threshold (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) is a metric used to represent American families living above the federal poverty level but below the basic cost of living.
In 2018, 11% of Connecticut families lived below the federal poverty level, according to ALICE in Connecticut’s 2020 report. But for ALICE households, it was almost three times that – 27%.
“Great Britain did it,” Garrett said, referencing the country’s 50% decrease in child poverty between 1999 and 2008. “No child should be living in poverty.”
Sacco said this bill has the potential to be historic.
“Once it is in place, it will become popular. It’ll be hard for politicians to vote not to extend it on a more permanent basis,” she said. “This has the potential to be something as significant as the Social Security Act of 1935.”
As Sacco mentioned, this credit is not permanent. The American Relief Plan only extends it for one year.
“We’ve got a lot of income inequality here in Connecticut,” Garrett said. “We don’t do enough, but we’re taking a step in the right direction. This is the right step. But we need something more permanent.”
Grace agrees.
“We need to recognize that this is not a permanent solution,” he said. “We need to come up with a permanent way to lift people out of poverty.”
Rollout of the fully refundable tax credit is expected to begin in July and continue throughout the remainder of the year. Representative DeLauro is currently working to push legislation that will make the credit permanent.