Many Americans took a double whammy to the pocketbook this year: Prices for things like food and rent rose, and federal pandemic aid continued to peter out. But a string of states took a cue from one of those relief measures — the expanded federal child tax credit — and are stepping in to help bridge the gap.
That tax credit was a pandemic success story. Enacted in 2021, it cut child poverty in half before it expired at the end of that year, and poverty rates shot right back up.
