I agree with the recent letter about Child Tax Credit (“Weeklies are What’s Happening” by Willie Dickerson, Letters 5/26). Under the American Rescue plan, which President Joe Biden signed in 2021, it made the full Child Tax Credit (CTC) available to all low-income families for the first time. This change alone reduced the number of children living below the federal poverty line by almost half.

Since the monthly CTC payments stopped in January, families are facing increased hardship. Monthly child poverty rate has since increased 41 percent from December 2021 to January 2022 alone. 

The House has passed the CTC in the Build Back Better Act. Now it’s time for the Senate to step up and help those children who need it most. Call or write your senators and urge them now to vote for and extend the Child Tax Credit.

Janet Brumbaugh

West Linn