Today is a Good Day.
On July 15, the first expanded Child Tax Credit payments hit bank accounts — and a lot of incredible leaders came together to celebrate a huge win for families.
On the day that nearly 40 million families started receiving direct monthly payments thanks to the new Child Tax Credit, too many amazing things happened to fully process it all in real time. So here’s a recap:
All day, we saw #ChildTaxCredit trend on social media. We witnessed delighted parents — some of whom didn’t know this was about to happen — posting screenshots of the payments hitting their bank accounts. And a whole lot of incredible leaders in this movement came together to celebrate this huge win for families.
Vice President Kamala Harris summed it all up pretty well:
“Today is a good day.”
The morning kicked off with remarks from the White House, where President Biden put some real historical context on what this policy will mean for American families:
The centerpiece celebration of the day was the Family Matters: A Celebration of the Child Tax Credit , organized by my colleagues at the Economic Security Project, Building Back Together, the Care in Action coalition, and Community Change and dozens of other partner organizations. It was the culmination of the “Keep Families Afloat” Week of Action — we were joined by, in addition to Vice President Harris, union organizers, senators, an NFL star, domestic workers, rock star members of Congress, flight attendants, a Secretary of Health and Human Services and a former Secretary of State. (Oh, and there were also plenty of cameos by actual kids.)
Our incredible co-chair Dorian Warren hosted the event alongside the brilliant Melissa Harris-Perry. The whole program is worth watching, but here are few highlights:
Secretary Hillary Clinton reminded everyone that this money belongs to parents to do with it what they will:
Senator Elizabeth Warren got to the heart of what Congress wanted the American Rescue Plan to do:
NFL Quarterback Robert Griffin III put to bed any worries that this is some kind of scam or gimmick:
Ai-jen Poo, co-founder of Domestic Workers Alliance, took a minute to walk through the easy steps non-filers need to take to sign up for Child Tax Credit payments:
Senator Raphael Warnock put it simple, powerful terms:
Michael Tubbs, founder of Mayors for Guaranteed Income and former mayor of Stockton, CA, added a powerful perspective on what these direct payments represent:
Ady Barkan, founder of Be A Hero PAC, defined this victory as a critical re-emergence of progressive governing philosophy:
A lot of speakers brought up the fact that the new Child Tax Credit is estimated to cut child poverty in half, but Rep. Barbara Lee captured what that means for anti-poverty efforts on a larger scale:
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, one of the OG champions of the Child Tax Credit (and whose style lit up the comments section), explained what this means to all working families:
We even had a segment showcasing TikTok creators finding new and often hilarious ways to raise awareness about the Child Tax Credit.
And Vice President Harris delivered keynote remarks that firmly put this moment in the history books:
But nearly every single speaker pointed out that our work isn’t done. First, we need to make sure the parents in our lives know about how they can receive these payments, if they didn’t receive a check automatically. (Tell them to go to ChildTaxCredit.gov to learn more and sign up.) And the next fight is making sure that these checks don’t stop arriving in December. The team that came together to celebrate this first day of Child Tax Credit payments will be on the front lines of the effort to make them permanent.
And ICYMI, Tracy Morgan teamed up with Common Sense media to win the internet:
MomsRising hosted a Tweetstorm, and released this excellent explainer video.
I also loved seeing Aisha Nyandoro, the visionary behind Magnolia Mother’s Trust, Stacey Rutland of Income Movement and Reshma Saujani of the Marshall Plan for Moms team up and release this letter from 50 moms from 50 states about the importance of the CTC.
And all of this was on the heels of 35 events that happened in cities around the country, featuring local influencers, electeds, parents, educators and more talking about the importance of the CTC, and how to sign up for the payments if you didn’t file taxes. This local, on-the-ground work is some of the most important work — and we’re so grateful to our many partners for driving that forward.
