In the News

"A senior White House official confirmed to NBC News that the administration is encouraging people to have babies, saying, “That’s what we talked about during the campaign.”

Asked at a White House event about the proposed "baby bonus," Trump told reporters that it “sounds like a good idea to me."

Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, a co-chair of the bipartisan House Paid Family Leave Working Group, said the effort “would be laughable if it wasn’t so sad.”

Instead of a one-time payment, expanding the Child Tax Credit — which provides long-term tax breaks for some parents — would be a more reliable way to help families, said Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., leader of the congressional Dads Caucus.

“Most costs are not one-time costs. When it comes to a kid, they’re ongoing every single month,” Gomez said. “The Child Tax Credit, if it was advanceable — that means, if it was paid monthly — it would have a huge impact on families.”

Gomez pointed to Census data and a Care.com report that showed that the median housing cost as a percentage of income was 31% for renters and 21% for homeowners in 2024. Meanwhile, parents on average spent 29% of their savings on child care costs the same year.

With Republicans controlling Congress, the bill faces strong headwinds. Some Senate Republicans, though, have signaled a willingness to raise the child tax credit in other ways as they consolidate plans to pass a major tax bill this session.

“I don’t know if they have a real appetite to do it,” Gomez said of the Trump administration. “Because the solutions are there. Like, people have been discussing them for a long time. They’re not new. And if they were serious about it, they would look at those solutions.”