JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Set up outside the federal courthouse in Downtown were multiple bags of rice. Demonstrators with Income Movement and the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville, Inc. set it up. Each grain of rice was supposed to represent the number of children who would be affected without the extended Child Tax Credit. Erica Wright, one of the members of the Income Movement said 3.8 million children in Florida alone would be experience the impact.
"700,000 will be pushed back into poverty or deeper poverty," Wright added.
For six months, families received a monthly cash payment to help cover the cost of raising their kids. Research from Columbia University showed the expanded child tax credit helped 61.2 million children in December.
"This is about about right and wrong," Ben Frazier said, who's with the Northside Coalition. "This is about caring people."
Activists want Senator Marco Rubio to work with congressional leaders. They went inside the courthouse to set up a meeting with the US Senator.
"We wanted to explain that there is a desperate need to help poor people in the state of Florida," Frazier said.
However, Rubio is working on something different. The Florida politician said he is collaborating with other lawmakers to reintroduce the Child Tax Credit for Pregnant Moms Act. Something that would allow mothers to claim child tax credit for their unborn child.
“Life begins long before a child is born,” Rubio said. “This legislation would extend the Child Tax Credit for working families to expectant mothers, providing vital tax relief to new parents and ensuring that unborn children are rightly included in working families’ credit calculation. Life and family are the very foundation of our society, which is why I am proud to support this effort.”
