April 8, 2024
We Still Don’t Know How Much Taxpayers Lost Due to Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Fraud
One of the first programs Congress created to assist Americans thrown out of work by the pandemic was the unprecedented Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program. PUA expanded unemployment benefits to millions of independent contractors, the self-employed, and others never before eligible for regular Unemployment Insurance (UI) checks. But in some of the worst policy choices of…
April 4, 2024
Biden’s ‘Tax Cut’ Rhetoric Is Really Just Code For Benefit Increases
President Biden’s rhetoric about his new budget proposal suggests it is full of tax relief for working families. For example, one White House fact sheet is headlined “The President’s Budget Cuts Taxes for Working Families and Makes Big Corporations and the Wealthy Pay Their Fair Share.” Taking from the rich to give more to working (and even non-working) families is a…
March 28, 2024
An Early Look at the Child Tax Credit Changes in the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024
Abstract The Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024, which the US House of Representatives passed on January 31, 2024, and the Senate is now considering, would make important changes to the child tax credit (CTC) if enacted. The legislation would increase CTC payments for families with lower earnings, apply a one-year…
March 26, 2024
Economic Characteristics of the Food Insecure
Abstract The United States Department of Agriculture annually measures food insecurity among US householdsto assess whether Americans have access to adequate food. Intuition suggests that food insecurityrates should correlate to household resources, offering policymakers an important metric to guidegovernment assistance efforts. In this report, we examine the effectiveness of the food insecurity ratein identifying financially…
March 25, 2024
Families Slip Back Into Poverty After Pandemic-Era Child Tax Credit Expires
Watch the full video here. During the pandemic, lawmakers dramatically, but temporarily, expanded the social safety net, including more money for families with children. The impacts of those changes are still being felt and debated to this day. Amna Nawaz and producer Sam Lane report on that for our series, America’s Safety Net. Read the…
March 21, 2024
Sugary Beverage Consumption Among SNAP Recipients
The House Agriculture Committee recently failed to pass an appropriations bill that would have authorized a pilot program to test whether nutrition-based restrictions in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) could improve health outcomes for low-income households. This is just the latest rejection by Washington policymakers of proposals designed to improve nutritional outcomes for SNAP…
March 12, 2024
Why Did Food Insecurity Increase from 2019 to 2022 in the United States?
Abstract In 2022, the United States witnessed a notable rise in household food insecurity, reversing a decade-long decline. Some observers have argued that the expiration of government relief efforts stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic caused the one-year spike. However, the household food insecurity rate was higher in 2022 than in 2019, the year before the…
March 11, 2024
How Many Forms of “Wage Insurance” Do We Need, Exactly?
One of the most controversial policies included in H. R. 7024, the “Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act” that passed the House on January 31, is a provision that would expand the “lookback” to determine eligibility for the child tax credit (CTC). Under current law, adults claiming the CTC for a tax year…
March 4, 2024
Exploring America’s Social Safety Net And The Political Fights Around It
View the full video here. Our new series, “America’s Safety Net,” is focused on the complex web of programs meant to help Americans in need. Over the coming weeks, we’ll take an in-depth look at the different forms of welfare in the U.S. Up first, Geoff Bennett and producer Sam Lane spend some time explaining…