Democrats spent Tuesday encouraging Americans to file their taxes in order to receive the second half of the expanded child tax credit, as lawmakers called for the now-expired larger tax break to be extended. 

The tax credit was expanded under the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package passed by Congress last March. It raised the credit in 2021 from $2,000 per child to $3,000 for kids ages 6 to 17, and $3,600 for children under 6. 

From July to December, families received the credit in the form of monthly payments. The remaining six months of credits can be collected by people filing their taxes with the IRS.

Vice President Kamala Harris, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and White House senior adviser Gene Sperling hosted a virtual event Tuesday to make sure people were aware of the final step. 

Workers without children could also get additional help this tax season if they file. The relief package nearly tripled the earned income tax credit for workers without dependent children, meaning that 17 million people could receive credits worth $1,500.

“Our message today is simple: If you are eligible for the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit, we want you to get those credits,” Harris said. 

The Biden administration says the expanded child tax credit is a critical tool in cutting childhood poverty. 

“The truth is there are people across our nation who work hard every day and still struggle to get by,” the vice president said. “And it should not be this way in our country, in the United States of America, and the president and I firmly believe that we have to do better.”

Harris directed people who believe they are eligible for the credit to visit ChildTaxCredit.gov for more information. 

The Biden administration is asking state and local governments, faith-based organizations, community groups and others to help spread the word about collecting the credits. 

The enhanced child tax credit expired at the end of 2021, reverting to $2,000 a year per child unless Congress acts. Biden has sought to make the larger credit permanent through his nearly $2 trillion Build Back Better social and climate spending plan, but that has stalled in Congress. 

Sperling said Tuesday, “I assure you, no one in the Biden-Harris administration is not still fighting hard to has given up” the push to make the larger credits permanent. 

A group of congressional Democrats on Tuesday held a news conference on Capitol Hill asserting that an extension of the child and earned income tax credits should be the centerpiece of any budget reconciliation bill they consider. 

“In my view, the last thing we should be doing is doubling childhood poverty, increasing hunger in the United States by 25%,” said Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado. 

“I've been around this place for long enough to see what happens when wealthy people's tax cuts expire — and they're extended as a matter of course,” Bennet continued. “I've seen what happens in this place when some of the largest corporations in America have their tax cuts expire — we do everything we can to make sure that those tax cuts are extended by the end of the year.”

Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio called the expanded child tax credits the “most consequential thing we've done in this body to make people's hard work pay off … in decades.”

Republicans say they are opposed to the expanded child tax credits because people with low or no income are now eligible, which they argue disincentives some Americans from working. Advocates for the tax credit, however, say the change is necessary to cut deep poverty, and a recent analysis by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis and Appalachian State University found no evidence that the monthly payments caused parents to stop working.

Some Republicans — as well as moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia — have also have expressed concerns about higher-income families being eligible for child tax credits, a change that was made by a Republican-led Congress in 2017. 

The full credit is available to all families earning up to $150,000 a year, but families with incomes up to $400,000 may receive a smaller credit.

There are also questions about how the program would be paid for if it becomes permanent. Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah is among the Republicans adamantly opposed to raising taxes to fund it.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.