WASHINGTON, D.C. — According to new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau, child poverty increased by 12.4 percent following the expiration of the expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC) in 2022, signaling the need for bipartisan action on the policy.

Families have struggled to contend without the CTC over the past year, in a time of record inflation and skyrocketing increases in the cost of child care.

“The implementation of that expanded child tax credit or child allowance was associated with a significant decline in measures of food insecurity, financial insecurity, whether people could pay sudden bills,” writes PBS reporter Stephanie Sy. “And, as you might expect, when that support disappeared, you saw the reverse.”

Now, advocates for the policy are looking ahead to find a bipartisan path forward for the Child Tax Credit. With another cliff for the policy ahead — the expiration of many tax provisions’ current form as passed in the Trump administration’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 — the stakes for finding policy solutions to support American families are high.