Let’s expand the Child Tax Credit, let's complete the win

Last night, the Hill reported, House passes $78 billion tax bill in bipartisan vote which is a downpayment on a win for the Child Tax Credit (CTC). Next begins the focused work in the Senate to pass the bill before legislating slows in deference to the election season. 

You can still take action: Tell your Senators and House members to support the CTC.

Expanding the CTC is the most effective approach to alleviating child poverty, enhancing economic mobility, and assisting low-income families in meeting their essential needs. This tax credit has been shown to promote long-term economic mobility, stability, and improved health and education outcomes, especially for families of color. It also holds the potential to benefit state and local economies significantly. The Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024 takes us toward equity.

Reject extreme changes for immigration-asylum

Take action: Defend Asylum

The negotiation for changes to asylum and immigration enforcement laws has hit another inflection point. As of reporting on Sunday, January 28, a negotiator, Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), told CNN (video) that a bipartisan agreement has been reached and could be ready in the coming days.  You can still make a difference for migrants fleeing danger and oppression.

Clamor for people and planet, for environmental justice

Take action: Tell Congress we need the Environmental Justice for All Act of 2023 

Frontline activists are discussing how to press the issues of people and planet, human rights, and civil rights in response to ecological devastation and pollution with the recent news reported by Delaney Nolan for the Intercept, The EPA is Backing Down from Environmental Justice Cases Nationwide. The article highlights, “The agency has pumped the brakes on Civil Rights Act investigations out of apparent fear that a Louisiana challenge could make it to the Supreme Court ” after Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, now the state’s governor, sued. 

DACA is in Danger

In 2012, President Obama initiated a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, intended as a temporary measure to protect Dreamers until Congress could act. It provided relief from deportation and granted work authorization to over 800,000 undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children.

On September 13, 2023, U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen ruled that the DACA was illegal as revised by the Biden administration. The DACA case is again before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which previously ruled that the original DACA program was illegal. If the Fifth Circuit upholds this current decision, it will likely be appealed to the Supreme Court. However, if the Supreme Court upholds a negative decision of the Fifth Circuit, it could have severe consequences for the current DACA recipients and more than two million other immigrants who would now meet DACA eligibility criteria.

United We Dream is working with the law firm DLA Piper to submit an amicus curiae brief supporting the federal government appellants in the DACA Case. UUSJ has joined the brief.

Ultimately, only Congress can provide permanent protection for the Dreamers. UUSJ’s action alert for the Dreamers is available here. 

See an informative opinion by the Washington Post editorial board: Congress used to care about the ‘dreamers.’ What happened?

A Just Immigration Reform, Not Extreme Changes

For several weeks, a bipartisan group of senators has been negotiating a supplemental appropriation with the Biden administration that would trade our long-standing refugee protection system for aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan: Biden and senators on verge of striking immigration deal aimed at clamping down on illegal border crossings, CBS News

The deal would have a devastating effect on people in need of protection by raising the standard for making an asylum claim and codifying an emergency authority to close the border when unauthorized border crossings exceed a certain level. UUSJ is very concerned that this bipartisan compromise does not include a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and other much-needed reforms needed to improve rather than eliminate important protections in our asylum laws.

• UUSJ is urging citizens to send a message to President Biden and Vice President Harris demanding that they take action to support our long-standing asylum protection system.
• UUSJ is also encouraging citizens to send an email to members of Congress urging them to reject extreme changes to our immigration system.
• Our opinion in the Washington Post discusses how one of the proposed changes, requiring migrants to wait in Mexico, is cruel and makes no sense.

Partnering with others to defend asylum

UUSJ is also joining the National Immigrant Justice Center, Human Rights First, and the Women’s Refugee Commission in Virtual Advocacy Days to #SaveAsylum to urge members of Congress to oppose anti-immigrant and anti-asylum policies that would rapidly deport migrants without a chance to present their claims in immigration court. Earlier in January, UUSJ joined other rallies, vigils, and Congressional visits organized by the Interfaith Immigration Coalition and other secular advocacy organizations.

Participation will be a key to pro-democracy work this year

Signaling some of the challenges ahead, reporter Fortesa Latifi writes Gen Z Voters Say They Are Opting Out of the 2024 Election for Teen Vogue. From what we see reported and discussed elsewhere, they are not alone.

We think that sharing personal stories of deep concern, repeatedly, as Dee Ellison did for this month's commentary, is a key way to counter the impulse to opt out of the important decisions 2024 will present.

Plans for engaging congregations in 2024

The UUSJ Democracy Action Team (DAT) is putting together materials that democracy teams around the country can use. We have sent a survey to more than 900 U.S. congregations, and 94 congregations have responded. Nearly all of them are interested in participating with UUSJ in the effort to save democracy. We plan to do the following over the next two months:

• Create and make available two presentations based on the David Pepper book Saving Democracy.
• Finalize a checklist – Your Personal Plan to Help Save Our Democracy – that groups and individuals can use to build teams and decide what work they want to do.
• Create a website with detailed information for each item on the checklist.

When the materials are ready, we will hold monthly Zoom meetings with the participating congregations to present and discuss the materials and have breakout groups where congregations can learn from each other.

Get connected to our Democracy Action Team -  participate in our survey

The Democracy Action Team is still happy to receive additional survey responses. We are collecting congregation information and asking congregations if they would like to collaborate with our team for voter education and democracy mobilization activities this year.

If you are a primary congregational contact for voting rights/democracy and have not yet taken the survey, please complete the short survey for your congregation. Emails were sent to congregation administrators, but they may have yet to get to you. It’s all right if we receive more than one response from a congregation. Thank you!

Saving Democracy book and video

Much of the democracy activism work the DAT plans to do this year is based on the book Saving Democracy: A User’s Manual for Every American by David Pepper. We hosted a Zoom presentation by David in January, and we encourage you to watch it and then read his book.

White House announces LNG pause

The big climate justice news caught national attention with Coral Davenport’s article: White House Said to Delay Decision on Enormous Natural Gas Export Terminal, NYT. 

The Biden Administration will make a “temporary pause on pending decisions” to permit new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities. At the same time, they establish a process to review whether such projects are in the public interest of Americans. If such LNG projects are no longer determined to be in the public interest, they may no longer receive the same preference in policy and permitting – or in financing from Wall Street. 

• See the White House Fact Sheet and Supportive Statements.

This serious strategic move challenges the preferential status of the oil and gas industry. It has the attention of reporters and analysts trying to figure out the implications. It has advocates both excited and worried: Many welcome the announcement; others are more cautious and wonder if it is a move designed to fizzle after the election season is over.

• Inside Biden’s climate test for LNG, E&E News by Politico
• White House gas export review to freeze new projects for more than a year, Politico
• Biden pauses LNG export approvals after pressure from climate activists, Reuters
• Biden Urged to Reverse LNG Pause by Global Business Groups, Bloomberg
• Um, I think we all just won, Bill Mckibben, The Crucial Years
• The Oil & Gas Lobby is Panicking, Jeremy Symons, Climate Insider
• Frontline & National Organizations Respond to Biden Administration Announcement to Pause New LNG Export Approvals & Reassess Public Interest Determination, Sierra Club
• International Community Wants Biden to Act on LNG, NDRC

U.S. Supreme Court remains a player on climate 

After oral arguments during mid-January in the U.S. Supreme Court case Relentless v. Department of Commerce (audio and transcript), policy advocates are focused on the triple threat to public health, food safety, and climate change embodied in this challenge to the Chevron doctrine, which is at the heart of this case. The Chevron doctrine has provided the framework for federal agencies to defend their rules when Congress has been ambiguous or unclear in statute for the last four decades.

• Discarding the Chevron Doctrine Will Not Fix Congress, The Dispatch
• Supreme Court likely to discard Chevron, SCOTUS Blog
• Supreme Court signals it will claw back federal agency power, The Hill
• Supreme Court appears ready to erode Chevron doctrine, E&E News by Politico
• ‘Chevron deference’ faces existential test, Harvard Gazette 
• What Happens If the Supreme Court Ends “Chevron Deference”?, NDRC
• Supreme Court Weighs Overturning a Pillar of Federal Regulatory Law, Inside Climate News

FEMA makes it easier for disaster victims

As the frequency and cost of natural disasters increase across the country, the federal government is finally taking a step to modernize emergency assistance. 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced it would update its aid programs, expediting access to needed funds, expanding eligibility for property repairs, and easing the application process for people seeking assistance. New rules go into effect March 22. See the FEMA Press Release. “The pressure is working,” said the Sunrise Movement.

By making federal disaster aid more accessible to everyone, people of color and poor communities stand to gain the most. Black Americans and low-income families are more likely to live in flood zones and have fewer resources to recover from property damage caused by extreme weather, according to recent reports and studies.

Pushing for a win on the Child Tax Credit

The big news of late January 2024 in the fair tax space was the unveiling of H.R. 7024, the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024. Last night, PBS reported the House passes bipartisan bill to enhance child tax credit, revive key tax breaks for businesses. Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith crafted this bi-partisan tax deal. The measure expands the Child Tax Credit (CTC) while lowering business taxes.

Take action: Support expanding the Child Tax Credit

While we would have liked to see a more generous approach for CTC, in line with the American Rescue Plan Act credit, we take what David Dayen writes about the strategic implications seriously (below); we believe that the measure could benefit more low-income kids than any other measure this session of Congress. See our press release.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities provides helpful explanatory materials: 

• Fact sheet: Child Tax Credit Proposal: Impacts by the Numbers
• Report: About 16 Million Children in Low-Income Families Would Gain in First Year of Bipartisan 
• Child Tax Credit Expansion
• Tables with data by state, race, and ethnicity

Settling for less to advance the Child Tax Credit proposal?

In An Unequal Tax Trade, David Dayen argues that in the excitement of winning the Child Tax Credit (CTC) – which UUSJ supports – we forget that we are also giving far larger benefits to corporations. He argues that lack of parity is a big strategic problem.

“After 2025, the CTC is chopped in half. If this deal becomes a ‘tax extender’ precedent, in 2026, Republicans would get their favorite business tax credits, and Democrats would get a little more refundability on a $1,000 CTC. Democrats would have to give up more to get the CTC back to its previous level; in fact, the Trump campaign has a bunch of other corporate tax cuts in mind should they win the election.”

Tax policy may be the basis of distrust in the U.S.

In What’s Driving Our Epidemic of Distrust? Sam Pizzigati highlights that “Big Business” is the second most-distrusted national institution in the United States, that only 14 percent of us trust Corporate America, and points toward the fact that, today, America’s wealthiest 400 individuals pay federal taxes at just about an 8.2 percent rate, once you account for loopholes.