One part of President-elect Joe Biden's plan would in effect create a national family allowance for the first time in the United States. The proposal would temporarily expand the existing federal child tax credit and make it fully refundable, meaning that families that don’t owe taxes would get the money in the form of a government payment. That "would greatly benefit the poorest kids in the United States," reaching about 27 million children who aren’t helped now because their families are too poor to make use of a tax credit, says Katherine Michelmore, assistant professor of public administration and international affairs, who has studied the impact of the existing program. "Over half the kids who would benefit are Black and brown children," she says. Read more in the Los Angeles Times article, "Biden proposes $1.9-trillion plan for pandemic and economic crisis."