Lawmakers may not be talking about more stimulus checks, but the Change.org petition calling for recurring stimulus checks continues to gain supporters. However, the person who started the fourth coronavirus stimulus check petition seems to have shifted focus toward giving stimulus money to parents.
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Stephanie Bonin, a Denver restaurant owner and the author of the Change.org petition, wants Congress to make the Child Tax Credit a permanent thing.
"I'm surprised that it hasn't gone through the roof because we have a chance of making that permanent," Bonin told Newsweek. "Yes, it's not a monthly stimulus check with those words, but it's a monthly check to families with kids."
The American Rescue Plan, which was passed in March this year, expanded the Child Tax Credit (CTC) from $2,000 per kid to $3,600 for children under 6 years old and to $3,000 for children between 6 and 17 years old.
Moreover, the stimulus plan also changed how families could receive the money. Eligible families could get half the amount in six monthly payments (July through December), and the other half next year after filing taxes. However, the increased tax credit and the new payment arrangement is only for this year.
Bonin now is supporting calls for making the expanded Child Tax Credit permanent. Over the past few months, she has been updating her stimulus check petition with comments in favor of the child tax credit.
For instance, in an update last month, Bonin noted the fight is now to make the payments permanent. She said that it is "illogical" that a stimulus that supports millions of people would be "erased."
Biden May Make CTC Payment Permanent
Similar to Bonin’s stimulus check petition, there is now another petition for making the expanded CTC permanent. Keri Troehler-Duesing, a high school teacher and mother, started this petition and refers to the payment as a “lifeline.”
Bonin's petition has gotten over 2.9 million signatures, but the petition for CTC has generated about 61,000 signatures so far. Bonin’s Change.org petition calls for giving $2,000 monthly stimulus checks to Americans until the pandemic ends. She is confident that the petition could reach its goal of 3 million signatures, making it one of the biggest petitions on Change.org ever.
President Joe Biden may not support calls for another stimulus check, but he may support making expanded CTC payments permanent, or at least extend it for some more years. In fact, Biden’s American Families Plan, which came out in April, calls for a four-year extension of the Child Tax Credit.
Additionally, after the monthly stimulus payment started going out in July, Biden again called for extending the Child Tax Credit, saying "people who are working hard and paying taxes deserve a break."
Biden may be calling for a four year extension, but experts believe the expanded CTC payment will likely be made permanent.
