Publications

Affordable child care is essential infrastructure that supports families’ economic well-being as well as other economic activity. Without accessible and affordable child care, mothers—especially those with low incomes—face barriers to employment, deepening economic insecurity, and gender inequities. Decades of evidence show child care investments empower families and strengthen the economy.

Drawing on data from the last six years and firsthand accounts, this brief describes how temporary federal investments and expanded remote work options during the pandemic enabled record-breaking labor force participation among mothers—but also how the expiration of these supports has caused many women to fall back out of the work force, especially Black mothers. The piece underscores the importance of child care as a foundational economic policy and calls for meaningful action to enable women to make choices about work and caregiving without being constrained by structural barriers. By illustrating the continued gaps and the urgent need for robust investment in child care infrastructure to support women, especially those with young children, the brief aims to inform policymakers and inspire changes that promote equity and opportunity for all families.

The Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) have proven effective at reducing poverty and narrowing racial and gender disparities, especially for women of color and children in low-income households. However, in 2025, H.R. 1 expanded benefits for higher-income families while restricting access and reducing benefits for many low-income and immigrant families. As a result, millions of children — particularly children of color, in large families, or in rural areas — were excluded from receiving the full CTC, despite evidence that the credits support family well-being and alleviate poverty.

Co-authored by the National Women’s Law Center and the Georgetown Center on Poverty & Inequality, this brief makes the case for expanding the Child Tax Credit and reversing the restrictive provisions of H.R. 1 to build on the success of the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, which temporarily made the credit fully refundable and widely accessible, resulting in historic reductions in child poverty. It highlights research showing that expanding the CTC provides not only immediate relief for families but also long-term societal benefits, including improved health, higher earnings, and reduced crime. Recommendations include expanding the Child Tax Credit to reach up to 19 million more families, strengthening the IRS’s capacity to deliver these credits equitably, and restoring funding for vital programs like Medicaid and SNAP through increased and equitable tax revenue.

The People-Centered Digital Benefits Project is grounded in the belief that real progress towards people-centered digital benefits delivery depends as much on how government agencies are structured and led as on the technology they use. The Project launched in September 2025 to explore how states are reimagining the delivery of public benefits systems that too often leave people feeling frustrated and defeated, rather than supported. This final blog summarizes the lessons learned from the four states profiled over the course of the project—Massachusetts, New York, Maryland, and Colorado—and finds the most impactful investments were not in platforms or contracts, but in skilled professionals who had the influence and expertise to drive real change.

The Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) is an essential source of assistance for working families struggling to shoulder the ever-growing cost of child care. Millions of children across the country meet CCDF eligibility criteria – but the current program does not meet the full need, and recent federal actions threaten to put child care even further out of reach for many families.

The brief explains the basic structure and function of the CCDF, and how recent funding freezes and rule changes could make child care even more challenging for families to access. At a time when child care costs are skyrocketing, the piece encourages policymakers to bolster the program to support families in addressing barriers to affordable child care.

Millions of people rely on public benefits to meet their basic needs, but families face delays and barriers to access when state enrollment and eligibility systems are running on outdated, burdensome technology. GCPI’s People-Centered Digital Benefits Project highlights state innovations for modernizing benefits delivery systems to meet people’s needs.

In this fourth and final case study, Visiting Fellow Andrés Argüello explores Colorado’s shift to state leadership of its public benefits system, building the internal capacity to redesign systems around the real needs and experiences of Coloradans. The brief highlights the conditions and strategic decisions that enabled the transformation and shows how increased state capacity will improve service delivery to families.

For millions of Americans, public benefits play a critical role in helping make ends meet, but the way these benefits cut off as income rises can mean families face a financial setback when their earnings increase. This brief explains what benefits cliffs are and shares recommendations with policymakers for creating clear, understandable step-downs in benefits programs to help families translate increased earnings into increased financial security.

Families are feeling the strain of rising child care costs, unstable work, and the growing gap between wages and the cost of living. While these challenges are often framed as questions of personal responsibility or family choices, this blog shows that women’s economic security has always been shaped by policy decisions. Drawing on history from the fight for credit access and workplace protections to the veto of a national child care system, it connects past decisions to today’s affordability crisis. By grounding current conversations about work, care, and family policy in this context, the piece encourages policymakers to move toward structural solutions that support economic stability.

Poverty statistics shape how policymakers and the public understand economic hardship and the role public programs play in helping families meet basic needs. Recent Congressional calls for changes to how poverty is measured would ignore best practices and disguise the hardship that families experience. This blog post argues that misleading statistics could be used to support policies that gut public benefits programs, which would harm millions of people in low- and moderate-income families.

Millions of Americans rely on public benefits to meet daily needs, yet unnecessary barriers and outdated technology too often make accessing help a struggle. GCPI’s People-Centered Digital Benefits Project highlights state innovations for modernizing benefits delivery systems to meet people’s needs.

In this case study, Visiting Fellow Andrés Argüello explores Maryland’s people-centered design approach to building the One Benefits application—which allows people to apply for multiple public benefits programs through a single, streamlined application—and the leadership, governance, and organizational structures that were critical to success.

Safe, stable housing is the foundation for economic well-being, workforce stability, and the strength of entire communities, but housing affordability is a nationwide crisis. This report analyzes new housing construction in six large metropolitan areas to yield insights into who benefits—and who doesn’t—from greater supply. We examine how housing access and affordability have shifted in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.

The findings raise questions about whether, on their own, supply side solutions will be sufficient to address the nation’s worsening affordability crisis. This resource can help policymakers understand how current development patterns are affecting affordability and what it will take to ensure lower-income renters can find and keep stable homes.