This week, the House Ways & Means Committee is marking up its portion of the House’s budget reconciliation bill, which includes some significant improvements to the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit. 

If passed, the House’s proposal would strengthen the EITC in two significant ways:

• Expand the number of people eligible for receiving the tax credit, by changing the age of eligibility from 25-64 to everyone aged 19 and older. 

• Nearly triple the maximum benefit for people without children living at home from $543 to $1,502, and increases the income cutoff to reach more people.

The House’s bill would also expand the Child Tax Credit, make payments monthly, and include families with no income for the first time.

“These expansions of the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit are significant, and will put much needed money directly into the pockets of families that need it the most,” said Adam Ruben, Director of Economic Security Project Action. “Even before the pandemic, too many families struggled to make ends meet -- and that number has only grown over the last year. These improvements, long-championed by Democrats, are a step in the right direction to getting families the help they desperately need.” 

Economic Security Project and Economic Security Project Action have long-championed improvements to the Earned Income Tax Credit through our Cost-of-Living Refund campaign. We have: 

• Supported research on expanding the eligibility of the Earned Income Tax Credit to include older workers and those without children, including reports by ITEP and the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. 

• Supported legislation introduced by Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman that includes these modernizations, the EITC Modernization Act, as well as several other legislative proposals. 

• Worked in states to expand the number of people eligible for their state EITCs, including passing age expansions with state partners in Maine and New Jersey, and continued efforts in Illinois and Washington. 

• Supported research on expanding tax credits to caregivers, which is reflected in the expansion of the Child Tax Credit to support children and their caregivers. 

• Pushed for tax credits and direct cash payments to families to be made monthly, as the proposed expansion of the Child Tax Credit would be.