This week, Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet announced he will be accompanied by Ambrosia Berg — a single mom from Boulder who will benefit from the expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC) — as his virtual guest to President Joe Biden’s joint address to Congress on Wednesday.
After securing a one-year expansion of the tax credit in the American Rescue Plan, Bennet is urging the Biden Administration to make the CTC expansion permanent.
“President Biden can unite the country and earn the confidence of the American people by responding to the needs of moms like Ambrosia and millions of other parents across the country,” said Bennet. “The president took an important first step in that direction with the American Rescue Plan, but we need to go a step further and make the Child Tax Credit expansion permanent this year.”
The expanded CTC is an integral part of the American Rescue Plan, and is projected to cut child poverty in America by nearly half in one year. It would lift 57,000 kids in Colorado out of poverty and benefit over 1 million kids statewide, including nearly 350,000 kids who had been left out of the full CTC prior to the American Rescue Plan. The expansion of the CTC in the American Rescue Plan is modeled after the American Family Act, which Bennet first introduced in 2017 with U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio).
“The expansion of the Child Tax Credit and the new monthly payments are a beneficial opportunity for families to overcome barriers,” said Berg. “As a single mom who has worked hard to put herself through college and raise a child, I will have more money each month to cover my bills, buy groceries, make sure my son has the appropriate materials for school, and have all of our necessities met to make it through the pandemic. I’m thankful for Senator Bennet’s supportive leadership on this issue and appreciate his efforts to make the expansion of this tax credit permanent.”
Berg is a single mom raising an 11-year-old son in Boulder. She graduated from high school in Aurora and was heading to Boulder to start her freshman year at the University of Colorado when she realized she was pregnant. Through determination and hard work, she completed her undergraduate degree in Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences and earned a certificate in LGBT Studies in eight years while working and raising her son. Berg is involved in many different local community groups and committees that work to help parents like her become self-sufficient.
Bennet met Berg during a recent visit to the Emergency Family Assistance Association of Boulder. The nonprofit helped her stay in school and live in the community she’s come to call home.
After the American Rescue Plan became law, Bennet led more than 40 Senate colleagues to urge President Biden to make the bill’s one-year tax credit expansions permanent as part of his recovery and infrastructure plan. Bennet will continue to ask the Biden Administration to make the CTC expansion permanent to create lasting change for America’s kids and families.