CHAIRMAN JEFFRIES: “HOUSE DEMOCRATS HAVE TWO MISSIONS: TO LIFT UP THE MIDDLE CLASS AND THOSE WHO ASPIRE TO BE PART OF IT AND TO DEFEND OUR DEMOCRACY”
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Vice Chair Pete Aguilar (D-CA) held a leadership press conference where they highlighted the life-changing impact of the expanded Child Tax Credit for millions of American families as well as House Democrats’ commitment to fighting back against voter suppression in Texas and across the country.
CHAIRMAN JEFFRIES: House Democrats really have two missions in terms of our agenda on behalf of everyday Americans. One is to lift up the middle class, those who aspire to be part of the middle class, low-income families, working families all across the United States of America. We are taking some incredibly important steps in that regard, including most recently with the roll out of the Child Tax Credit, which is going to be transformative in terms of the help and assistance that it will provide to tens of millions of American families to help make ends meet.
The Child Tax Credit has already made a difference based on the payments that have gone out to everyday Americans, which will help them pay for food and rent and housing and clothing and diapers and medicine and health care because the American people have said to us over the last several years that they are struggling. Prior to the pandemic, we know that approximately half of the American people reported that they could not afford a sudden, unexpected $400 expense. Child Tax Credit payments will make a big difference in that regard for everyday Americans.
Our second mission, of course, is to defend our democracy from the increasing attacks and efforts at voter suppression that are occurring all across the land. In that regard, we were honored to hear from several Members of the Texas House delegation about their efforts to lift up democracy in the great state of Texas to prevent the voter suppression bills from ever seeing the light of day.
Of course, they encouraged us here in the Capitol to do our part to make sure that voter protection and democracy reform measures like the For the People Act, H.R. 1 and the John Robert Lewis Voting Rights and Empowerment Act, which will be H.R. 4, make it over the finish line. We were pleased to hear from them and we look forward to doing what we need to do to protect and defend our democracy.
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VICE CHAIR AGUILAR: One of the important topics that we discussed in there was the expanded Child Tax Credit. We know Members were around the country over the past few weeks highlighting the fact that millions of hard-working families received that tax benefit last week. The Chairman and I have done events in our districts, and Members have been encouraged to continue to talk about how we are lifting up everyday Americans with the Child Tax Credit.
I was also pleased to hear from Chair DeLauro earlier this morning as she highlighted the appropriations bills that we got out of committee – all 12 bills to strengthen our national security, to invest in cyber infrastructure, to invest in infrastructure, to invest in our communities. We look forward to those bills coming for us. It's a reflection of our values, those appropriations bills. Chair DeLauro made the case for our colleagues to support these bills to ensure that we do everything we can to help our communities.
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Video of the full press conference and Q&A can be viewed here.
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