The Working Families Tax Relief Act of 2019 Would Improve the Lives of Millions of Women and their Families

(Washington, D.C.) Today, Senators Sherrod Brown, Michael Bennet, Richard Durbin, and Ron Wyden, along with 40 cosponsors, introduced the Working Families Tax Relief Act of 2019. Building upon the proven success of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC), this game-changing legislation would give a bigger EITC to hardworking parents and ensure that all low- and moderate-income families fully benefit from the CTC. The Working Families Tax Relief Act would also expand the CTC for very young children and provide much-needed tax relief for families in Puerto Rico. And it would also improve the EITC so that low-wage workers without children would receive meaningful tax assistance.

National Women’s Law Center President and CEO Fatima Goss Graves issued the following statement:

“The Working Families Tax Relief Act would boost the bottom line for millions of women and their families and help right our upside-down tax code that leaves too many hardworking people behind. If this legislation had been in effect in 2017, over 25 million working women would have benefitted – including almost 4.9 million Black women, nearly 4.8 million Latinx women, 1.27 million AAPI women, and 280,000 Native American women.

“Those women, in fact all women, have been relegated to the sidelines by a tax code that favors the wealthy and big corporations. Instead, we should be focused on those in our country who toil the longest hours and in the lowest-paying jobs—caregivers, cleaners, and restaurant workers. These workers and so many others can’t support their families on their paychecks alone, because while wages have stagnated for decades, costs like rent and child care continue to rise. And to make matters worse, under current law, many of these women do not receive the full benefit of tax credits and, in some cases, the taxes they pay can push their incomes below the poverty line. The Working Families Tax Relief Act of 2019 would help counter these dangerous effects, and put women and families front and center in our tax policy.”

 

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For immediate release: April 10, 2019
Contact:  Inés Rénique ([email protected])