Filing tax forms may not be much fun for anyone, but it can bring relief to struggling families, especially during these tight times. The federal Earned Income Tax Credit lifts more than 4 million people—over half of them children—out of poverty each year; it’s the nation’s most effective antipoverty program for working families. Here’s how it works.

If you hire staff you are in a position to let your employees know about the earned benefits they may be entitled to, using this short, practical guide from the National Human Services Assembly before April 15!

Economic recovery proposals before Congress include tax relief for lower-income working families, including targeted expansions in the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). A new Metropolitan Policy Program analysis shows how proposed expansions to the EITC would benefit taxpayers in individual states, metropolitan areas and selected cities around the nation. But there's more! Check out the whole EITC series.

President Bush's fiscal year 2009 budget proposal includes $2.8 billion in cuts to programs that impact children—a 3 percent drop from last year's federal budget. First Focus, a bipartisan children's advocacy organization, takes a reader-friendly look at the numbers and what they say about our nation's priorities.

The House Appropriations Committee voted on much of the spending portions of the bill. On January 22, 2009, the Ways and Means Committee debated and voted on the tax provisions and unemployment compensation, while the Energy and Commerce Committee worked on several health care provisions. The House Appropriations Committee posted online their bill text and a summary. Next steps are a full house vote and a comparable Senate bill, with the goal of having a bill on President Obama’s desk by Feb. 13, 2009.

The newly named and restructured White House Office for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships will be a resource for organizations, both secular and faith-based, to address the challenges of poverty, serve women and children, prevent teen pregnancy and improve the odds for young fathers. The Office will help "local groups learn their obligations under the law, cut through red tape, and make the most of what the federal government has to offer."

CFK Reports From: Expanding the Envelope of Anti-Poverty Initiatives
Event: Symposium
Organized By: Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program
Where/When: July 18, 2006; The National Press Club
Report By: Kate Carta

This symposium focused on the often overlooked opportunities that public and private leaders have to assist lower income families by bringing down the prices for basic necessities in their everyday lives.

Voters feel Congress is out of touch when it comes to funding education—that's according to a new national poll from the National School Boards Association (NSBA). Of 1,200 respondents, 74 percent said Congress does not do a good job of setting priorities for the federal budget and spending—and needs to change these priorities. A majority (59 percent) said they'd be less likely to vote for a member of Congress who voted against funding No Child Left Behind and Special Education programs to their "authorized and promised levels." Voters aligned with both parties supported restoring this funding.

Tax time is upon us—for some low- and moderate-income families, it can bring a major relief. State and federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) programs remove tax burdens for these working families, and are available even to those with incomes too low to be taxed. States that enact EITCs can reduce child poverty, increase effective wages, and cut taxes for families struggling to make ends meet, according to a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Even Start is a federally funded effort to improve literacy in very low income families, so that kids will do better in school, and parents can participate in their children's educations and improve their own life prospects. Now, a 56 percent cut in fiscal 2006 and a proposal from President Bush to eliminate all funding in fiscal 2007 has Even Start on the ropes. Cecilia Garcia takes a look at the program, and at the Bush administration's claim that it doesn't work.