A look at the end-of-year fight for the child tax credit, and a federal push to rein in Wall Street landlords
Hi all,
Happy December. Can’t believe the year is almost done, and mine will actually be ending a little earlier as I’m headed to Australia next week! I’m very excited about that, and so stay tuned for maybe some slightly earlier end-of-year reflections that I try to do every December.
For now though I have two new stories to share:
1. The first looks at the where things stand in Congress right now to expand the Child Tax Credit. This is the third big story I’ve done on CTC politics since coming to Vox, the first was in April — looking at why negotiations to expand the important family policy in the reconciliation package had stalled out and whether they could be revived. The second was in August, after the Inflation Reduction Act had passed—sans CTC—and advocates were licking their wounds and charting their next moves. And today I have a new piece, on the fight to get a CTC expansion passed this month in the “lame duck” Congress, and what kinds of compromises are now on the table.
You can read it here.
2. The second story I published on Friday, looks at a new bill in Congress to rein in banks + private equity that buy homes to flip or rent. I lay out why some lawmakers and advocates think this is an important thing to do to protect renters and prospective homeowners, and why some others think it’s a political distraction from increasing housing supply, and will take away needed housing options for families now and in the future. You can read the story and learn more about" “the Stop Wall Street Landlords Act” here.
I want to add, if anyone has any questions after they read these or any story I share, feel free to comment or email me and I’ll definitely do my best to answer!
Thanks for reading and your support. It’s been a weird year for journalism. Twitter is in confusing, not-great territory, a lot of media companies are starting layoffs, and I know reporters are all trying to figure out what this will mean for them, their audiences and sources.
For what it’s worth, I’ve recently created accounts on “Mastodon” (@rachelmcohen@journa.host) and “Post.News” (@rachelmcohen) though haven’t used either much yet, but thought it was worth grabbing the usernames. (A lot of Rachel Cohens out there!) If you’re on any of those feel free to connect with me there… for now I’ll probably stay mostly active on Twitter and Instagram (@rmc031) and will continue sending out periodic updates here!