Fact-checking Kamala Harris’s first campaign interview

CLAIM: “When we do what we did in the first year of being in office to extend the child tax credit, so that we cut child poverty in America by over 50%.”

VERDICT: This is somewhat of an exaggeration and needs context. Child poverty rates did fall, but not by “over 50%” and they rose again the year after, so the impact was only temporary.

The Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), external is one measure of poverty in the US and it does show that the child poverty rate fell 46% between 2020 and 2021.

However, after the Covid-era boost to child tax credit ended, the record low child poverty rate of 5.2% in 2021 rose to 12.4% the following year, according to 2022 Census Bureau data, external.

Americans earning less than $200,000 annually (or $400,000 for joint claimants) can, under the current child tax credit scheme, get $2,000 per year for each of their children under the age of 17.

This amount was increased by President Biden during the Covid pandemic up to a maximum of $3,600 but it reverted back to $2,000 at the end of 2021.

Kamala Harris has said that as president she would restore the child tax credit enhancement and provide $6,000 per child to families for the first year of a baby’s life.