Volunteers package food at a distribution site set up by the Community Food Bank of New Jersey

The rate of child poverty in the US rose 41% in January, following the expiry of the Biden Administration’s expanded child benefit.

Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy reported that the rate rose from 12% in December to 17% in January, with an additional 3.7 million children — from 8.9 million to 12.6 million — in poverty. Black and Latino children were the most seriously affected, as the rate returned to its level of December 2020.

As part of the American Rescue Plan, Congress approved an expansion of the Child Tax Credit from July to December. At an annual cost of $120 billion, the measure extended payments for children under 6 to almost all families while phasing out benefits for the wealthier. More than 61 million children in about 36 million households received the payment in December, amid a 24% drop in rates of hunger.

But the combination of Republicans and dissenting Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia has prevented any extension of the program, as they block the Biden Administration’s $2 trillion social and environmental budget. Manchin has insisted that the benefit discourages parents from working.

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After he and other Democrats met with White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain on Thursday, Manchin aid there is no chance of reviving a budget with the expanded child benefit. Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah has begun preliminary conversations on a smaller version of the credit, but there is little sign of a resolution so far.