Federal Policy Impacts on Child Poverty
The 2019 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s (NAS) A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty Report assessed the extent to which child poverty would be reduced with the adoption of a variety of different policies. After the report’s publication and in response to the economic downturn in the wake of the COVID pandemic, tax credits were temporarily expanded under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to provide more benefits to more children. Building on the 2019 report, the NAS will lead a committee of poverty scholars who will review and assess the impacts of the federal Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) on the child poverty rate to inform the design of more effective antipoverty policies. The committee will convene in-person or virtually and produce a written report that will be available for free download on the NAS website. They will also produce an executive summary and brief reports highlighting key findings, conclusions, and recommendations. The project will be led by Psychologist Natacha Blain and legal scholar Emily Backes.