Second round of Child Tax Credit payments headed to families of 61 million children

A second round of checks are hitting bank accounts as Democrats push to extend the monthly expanded Child Tax Credit payments. Payments totaling more than $15 billion went out to the families of 61 million children Friday. 

The are was a decline in the number of households reporting they sometimes or often do not have enough to eat — a change largely driven by households with children, according to Census Bureau survey data released this week. The bureau attributed the drop to the first round of payments, which went to more than 35 million families in mid-July. The survey data also found fewer households with children were struggling to pay their usual expenses after the first round of payments. Of the households that received the Child Tax Credit payments, many reported spending it on more than one thing. Forty-seven percent said they spent the money on food, 1 in 4 spent some of the payments on clothing, while nearly 10% reported spending it on child care.