Common Sense Kids Action Fund
MESSAGE TO CONGRESS:
Vote for America’s Children, Support the Build Back Better Act
The Common Sense Kids Action Fund is calling on Congress to support America’s children and families by voting in favor of the Build Back Better Act. This measure represents a historic opportunity to grow our economy and enhance racial and economic justice, protect the planet for future generations, and invest in the long-term health, education, and overall well-being of all of America’s children.
Among many important provisions in the Build Back Better Act, there are four in particular that Common Sense Kids Action Fund strongly supports because they help children.
- Help Families Pay Their Bills and Cut Child Poverty in Half
About 1 in 7 children -- more than 10 million total -- lived in low-income households in 2019. Growing up in poverty, even for short periods of time, can cause long-term emotional, physical, and economic instability. Poorer children are at greater risk for negative life outcomes such as lower academic achievement, abuse, behavioral problems, and developmental delays. The Build Back Better Act helps families with the costs of raising children and will help to lift nearly half of America’s kids out of poverty by extending the enhanced Child Tax Credit through 2025 and making it permanently refundable, so that all families get the full value of the credit no matter how little they earn. - Help Parents and Other Caregivers Get Back to Work by Making Child Care Affordable
The U.S. has not had a comprehensive child care program since a brief period during World War II. Working families have been left largely to their own devices to arrange child care, and although median wages have remained stagnant, child care costs continue to rise. The pandemic further demonstrated what we already knew: Child care in America is largely unavailable and unaffordable to low- and middle-income Americans. The Build Back Better Act would invest $200 billion for free, universal preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds and $225 billion to help make child care more available and affordable for parents of infants and toddlers. When fully implemented, this measure would benefit over 5 million American children and save families thousands of dollars each year on child care costs. - Help Americans Balance Their Roles as Workers, Parents, and Caregivers Through National Guaranteed Paid Family and Medical Leave The United States is the only developed nation that does not guarantee paid family medical leave to enable working people to take care of their children or other family members without risk of losing pay or their jobs. This has had enormous consequences for working families, and particularly for women, people of color, and lower-income workers who are more often pushed out of the workforce by family obligations. The Build Back Better Act would guarantee for the first time a comprehensive paid leave program for nearly every American. By guaranteeing 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave, the Build Back Better Act would help eliminate a major barrier to economic growth and racial and women’s economic justice.
- Help Bridge the Digital Divide by Keeping Students and Teachers Connected at Home
The Build Back Better Act invests an additional $4 billion to extend the highly successful Emergency Connectivity Fund to help students and teachers remain connected to the internet at home. The ECF was established in the American Rescue Plan in March, with $7.1 billion, and is helping students and teachers in every state during this unprecedented time. In addition, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also pending before Congress, would take a dramatic step forward to close the digital divide by investing $65 billion in broadband deployment, cost support, and digital inclusion.
Support America’s children and their families. All U.S. senators and members of Congress should vote in favor of the Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act and the Build Back Better Act.
Paid for by Common Sense Kids Action Fund