ACS New York: A Basic Income for Families? The Prospects for an American Child Allowance

As part of the new round of COVID-19 relief legislation, President Biden and Congress are reportedly working on a groundbreaking plan to create a new child benefit that would provide up to $300 per child each month to millions of American families. This program would come close to what is called a “child allowance” in other countries, providing a basic income to families with children. How would this new program work, and what would it mean for American families during a pandemic?

Join the ACS New York, Austin, Georgia, Los Angeles, Madison, Oregon, San Diego, Washington, D.C., and Western New York Lawyer Chapters along with a panel of policy experts to discuss the ins and outs of this potential new social welfare policy. The panel will explore how this program would work, how it has fared in other countries and contexts, what it could achieve here, and what its prospects are for becoming a reality in the United States.

Featuring:

Greg Duncan, Distinguished Professor of Education, The University of California, Irvine

Samuel Hammond, Director of Poverty and Welfare Policy, The Niskanen Center

Rebecca Vallas, Senior Fellow, The Center for American Progress

Moderated by:

Joel Dodge, Lecturer in Law, Columbia Law School; Co-Chair, ACS New York Lawyer Chapter

Reading Materials:

• Rachel West, Melissa Boteach & Rebecca Vallas, Harnessing the Child Tax Credit as a Tool to Invest in the Next Generation (Center for American Progress 2015)
• Greg J. Duncan, Timothy Smeeding, and Suzanne Le Menestrel, Poverty, work, and welfare: Cutting the Gordian knot (National Academy of Sciences 2020)
• Samuel Hammond & Robert Orr, The Conservative Case for a Child Allowance (Niskanen Center 2021)
• Baby's First Years