Chair DeLauro Statement on Clinical Study Indicating Cash Stipends Improve Babies’ Brain Function

NEW HAVEN – House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) released the following statement on the Baby's First Years study published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences that suggests direct cash payments like the expanded and improved monthly Child Tax Credit have a positive impact on babies' brain activity:

"It seems like commonsense: when parents can count on monthly payments to care for their children, it positively impacts their baby's brain development. Now, we have evidence from the groundbreaking Baby's First Years clinical trial to prove it. The study suggests that payments like the monthly expanded and improved Child Tax Credit improve the brain activity of children with long-term implications for their cognitive ability.

"As Chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee that determines federal funding for the National Institutes of Health, I am pleased that the funding we allocated for this study led to such positive results. For nearly two decades, I have been fighting to make the monthly Child Tax Credit a reality, and I will never give up. We must listen to scientists and govern based on the data. Now is the time to extend the historic Child Tax Credit policy passed in the American Rescue Plan."