2010 Federal Accomplishments

Consortium’s poverty reduction agenda saw some success in the 111th Congress. The following is a recap on those policies that helped lift up working families and children in 2010.

Comprehensive Tax Agreement

While the Consortium did not support extending the Bush era tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, there were provisions in the comprehensive tax package passed by Congress during December’s lame duck session that will help working families and their children. Specifically, the extension of improvements made last year as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) to the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the 13-month extension of federal Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits are good policies that will have a real impact.

Child Tax Credit - Low and middle-income working families with children are eligible for the Child Tax Credit (CTC). The credit is equal to 15 percent of the amount of a family’s earnings above the income threshold – set at $3,000 for tax years 2009 and 2010 in the Recovery Act – up to $1000 per child. The $3,000 threshold was extended for two more years as part of the tax deal. With this extension, tens of thousands of New England families will continue to receive benefit from the CTC.

Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) - The 2009 Recovery Act expanded EITC marriage penalty relief by allowing more low-income couples to marry without seeing their benefit reduced or eliminated affecting nearly 5 million adults and more than 8 million children. It also added a third tier benefit for the over three million working families with three or more children for 2009 and 2010. The tax deal keeps the 2009 improvements in place benefitting more than 400,000 New England children.

Unemployment Insurance – As part of the tax agreement, Congress agreed to extend the temporary federal emergency unemployment insurance benefit program through 2011. Under this program, jobless workers who exhaust their regular 26 weeks of state unemployment benefits but haven’t been able to find a job can receive additional weeks of federal benefits while they keep looking for work. This is particularly important now when almost half of those who are out of work have been unemployed for six months or longer. The extension will benefit an estimated 7 million Americans by December 2011.

Click here for more information about the agreement and related tax issues from the Center on Budget and Public Policy Priorities.

Child Nutrition

Prior to adjourning, Congress also passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. Signed into law on December 13th, the bill contains many important provisions to help improve child health and to combat the effects of child poverty by increasing access to existing child nutrition programs. Most importantly, the bill authorizes $4.5 billion in new funding over the next 10 years – the largest increase these programs have ever seen.

It also expands the Afterschool Meal Program to all 50 states and will allow schools in high-poverty areas to offer free meals to all students without collecting paper applications, which will expand access to more children and reduce administrative burdens on schools. The legislation will also make it easier for children receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid benefits to participate in school meal programs. However, the bill is partially funded by cutting future SNAP benefits beginning in November 2013. Consortium members opposed this provision and will work with regional and national partners to address this in the new Congress. Click here for a full summary of the bill from the Food Research and Action Center.

Nationwide in 2009, 62.5% of school lunches and 81.2% of school breakfasts served went to children who got free and reduced price meals through these programs. The most recent data from the US Department of Agriculture indicates that an estimated 1.1 million New England children participate in the National School Lunch Program, nearly 84,000 children in the region benefit from the Summer Food Service Program and more than 300,000 participate in the School Breakfast Program. With expanded access and resources, many more hungry children will be served.

Emergency State Fiscal Relief

In August, Congress approved legislation to provide an additional $16 billion for the enhanced federal matching percentage (FMAP) for state Medicaid expenditures and $10 billion in education funding to prevent teacher layoffs to help states meet budget goals and prevent the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs in the public and private sector. Without the FMAP extension, New England state budgets would have faced a collective shortfall of nearly $1 billion which would have led to severe cuts to Medicaid providers and benefits and shifts of funding away from education and other essential state programs.

Jobs Support

In 2009, Congress created the $5 billion TANF Emergency Fund as part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA). States have used these funds to provide basic assistance, short-term, non-recurrent benefits, or subsidized employment in the private and public sectors for low-income individuals who would otherwise be unemployed. An estimated thirty seven states used the TANF Emergency Fund to create subsidized jobs programs. Despite its success, efforts to extend the Emergency Fund for an additional year were unsuccessful.