The federal budget bill goes against Utah’s family values

The “big, beautiful bill” would require families to “pre-certify” the children they claim each tax year under the popular Earned Income Tax Credit.(Photo by Getty Images)

Utah prides itself on its commitment to family. It has a young population and large family sizes. It boasts countless family-friendly events and attractions. And family values are — allegedly — at the center of its lawmakers’ decisions.

Unfortunately, our representatives are currently in the process of advancing a federal bill that would harm the most vulnerable families in our state. Republicans’ Big Beautiful Bill proposes scaling back key tax credits on which low-income families rely to make ends meet. But it’s not too late — while the bill passed in the U.S. House, our senators now have the opportunity to make changes and protect these vital tax credits.

I’m a sociologist at the University of Utah. I have spent my career examining how policies that were never really intended to improve health do so nevertheless. These include things like food assistance, minimum wage increases, and tax credits. We typically think about how these policies affect our wallets, but they also affect our bodies. They influence whether we can afford safe housing, adequate diets, regular health care, and other basic needs that shape our physical as well as mental health.

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a popular, bipartisan program that puts much-needed cash back into the pockets of working families, but it also improves their health. Research has shown that moms who received the full EITC have better prenatal care, birth outcomes, and mental health compared to moms who did not. And children in households who received the full EITC are less likely than non-recipients to experience food insecurity, behavioral health problems, obesity, and childhood abuse and neglect.

But this bill would require families to “pre-certify” the children they claim each tax year. Already, approximately 1 in 5 families who are eligible for the EITC miss out because it’s too difficult to file for it, and “pre-certification” is another unnecessary piece of red tape that will deter even more families.

Meanwhile, the Child Tax Credit, which currently provides up to $2,000 per child, has also been shown to have significant health benefits for both parents and children. The Child Tax Credit improves well-being in similar ways to the EITC by giving families’ more financial breathing room.

Proposed changes to the CTC in this bill would leave many families behind. First, it would make millions of U.S. citizen children ineligible if at least one or both their parents are not U.S. citizens. Secondly, estimates project that 163,000 kids statewide would earn less than the full CTC because their parents’ income is too low, meaning that families with the most need won’t get the full amount. In my own Congressional district alone, UT-01, a total of 33,000 kids would be left behind.

Utah state legislators have already expressed some concern about the local impact of these restrictions, which function as a sort of marriage penalty and would hit many active-duty and veteran service members especially hard.

Some argue that cutting these tax credits is fine because honest work is enough for Americans to get by. But we know this is not the case for most families. My personal experience, which motivates my own research, corroborates this.

Growing up, my father worked tirelessly to provide a decent standard of living for our family through a combination of long hours, manual labor, and sheer will. By the time I was in middle school, it had begun to take its toll; the downturn in his health was rapid. My mother’s physical and mental health likewise began to suffer as she set to filling the economic gap that had opened with my dad’s failing health. This strain marred my childhood and undoubtedly contributed to parents’ early deaths at the ages of 58 and 60.

Utah is a place that promotes the ideal that “when families win, we all win — economically as well as socially.” Our elected officials, and the people who voted them in, should keep in mind the impact of these critical programs in the service of that family-friendly agenda and the health of Utah families