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Interview: Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto On The Child Tax Credit

The front exterior of the Capitol building in Washington DC. The composition is taken at an angle, so it looks like the foliage from nearby trees is framing the Capitol building.
Liam James Doyle
/
NPR

The families of hundreds of thousands of Nevada children are eligible for monthly payments from the federal government. It’s part of the expanded child tax credit passed during the latest pandemic-related stimulus package. KUNR’s Paul Boger spoke with Nevada Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto to talk about the payments, which started rolling out this week.

Paul Boger: Let’s start off by talking about the mood in Washington. How have you noticed things change over the last few months?

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto: Well, I can tell you from my perspective — what I see and what I’ve been working on because it’s needed in Nevada — are help for Nevadans, right now, as we beat this pandemic and help our families and to get our people back to work and to help our small businesses. That’s why it was important for people to not only understand what’s in the American Rescue Plan but how to access some of the major investments we’ve made in the American Rescue Plan, like the child tax credit.

Boger: State and local governments stand to receive about $4.5 billion under this plan. What is that money intended for?

Cortez Masto: Overall, there’s a number of investments made. It’s going to bring about almost $7 billion in investments to Nevada, whether it’s to local and state and tribal communities, or to our families or to our small businesses; for healthcare reasons, for education, for nutrition and agriculture. There’s a number of things in it that I fought for and advocated for. Really, at the end of the day, it was for me what can we do to really focus on what’s happening in Nevada and bring relief to our family members?

The child tax credit is really one key piece of it. Listen, I don’t have to tell you, Paul, you’ve seen during the pandemic our parents and our caregivers and our children, they endured so much during this year. Many are still struggling to find a new normal. That’s why this final relief, this COVID relief, the American Rescue Plan, was so important because it makes historic investments in community services for families.

Boger: A major provision of the American Rescue Plan was expanding the child tax credits to include monthly payments to parents. How do you see that affecting Nevada?

Cortez Masto: I think this child tax credit, this refundable tax credit is, is a lifeline for our working Nevada families, and it will cut child poverty in half. Let me explain what it does because I want our families to know that it’s out there and it’s available and they can access it this week. The IRS will be providing payments to families with children based on this expanded child tax credit. So annually, if you have a child between [six] to 17 years of age, you will be eligible for $3,000. If your child is under six, you’ll be eligible for $3,600.

What does that mean? That means that right now, there’s an estimate of 634,000 children in Nevada whose families would be eligible. They may see direct payments coming into anywhere from $250 a month to $300 a month, based on this child tax credit.

Really the challenge we saw in Nevada, based on this pandemic, it literally shut down our economy in Nevada. And our tourism and travel economy took the hardest hit. So my goal was to make sure our workers and our businesses that were asked to shutter and that were impacted by this pandemic really get some of this relief and support to keep them afloat so that as we are opening our doors now, which we see in Nevada, our economy will spring back that much quicker.

Boger: At the same time, your colleagues on the other side of the aisle, they’ve said, they’ve argued that the federal government has done enough to help people, the economy is rebounding on its own. Why are these credits so important right now?

Cortez Masto: Well, because Nevada had one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. At one point in time, it was almost 30%, and we still have a high unemployment rate. I will tell you, Paul, the American Rescue Plan and the funding for state and local government and our tribal communities was wanted by every single community in our state. And that, to me, when we were putting this plan together, I was talking with Nevadans. I was talking with individuals who are struggling. We have 17 counties. I talked with our local county leaders to figure out what their needs were. And I don’t care whether you’re Republican, Democrat, or non-partisan, there was a need for relief, and they all supported this funding. This American Rescue Plan has helped our state because of the hit we took in our revenues based on this pandemic, because we’ve asked people to shelter in place, because our businesses shuttered. This American Rescue Plan was needed to make those major investments and so much more. It’s not just in the short-term, but in the long-term as well.

Paul Boger is a former reporter at KUNR Public Radio.
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