b'Unlike other government spending STARTING OVERprograms, where assistance for poor and low-income families is filtered through layers of bureaucracy, the A story of getting back on track EITC encourages people to get and keep a job. [It] helps lower-income breadwinners who work hard to Life took a bad turn for Molly,*and she spiraled down to rockstretch their paychecks and yet still bottom, losing everything. In desperation, and with nowherefind it hard to get ahead.The EITC else to turn, Molly showed up at the local mission, looking foris based on a simple principle, to help. The mission staff embraced Molly, and little by little shereward those who work hard and began to warm up to the love and care she received. play by the rules. Feeling a icker of hope, she signed up for the missionsSenator Chuck Grassley (RIA), life-transformation program. As she attended several monthsformer chairman of the Senate of classes, counseling sessions, and practical training, MollyFinance Committee (20192021)engaged in the painstaking process of rebuilding her life, one step at a time. As part of the curriculum, Molly received help to track down her documents and organize her important papers in prepara-tion for managing real life outside the mission. The more she learned, the more her condence grew, and when the time came to tackle nancial responsibility, Molly knew she could trust her mentors and the resources they pointed her to. With some trepidation, Molly met with the consultant assigned to her, and they walked through the process of completing her tax return and ling for tax credits. As she walked away, Molly fully expected someone to stop her and tell her how much she owed for the help she had received. She had no experience with people who wanted to help her without expecting anything in return. And she couldnt quite believe it when she actually received a check from the government once her paperwork had been processed.Molly treated that money as a gift and used it to catch up on past-due bills that had accumulated when her life fell apart. Thanks to the I will neverguidance and forget the helpconnections I received toprovided at the get back upmissionand theThe federal Earned Income Tax and startmoney from theCredit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit tax creditsshe again.(CTC) are widely supported has gotten back onexamples of how the tax code Molly her feet, movedcan be utilized to equip Americans out on her own,with the resources they need to and earns a steadymake ends meet and, ultimately, income.to succeed in our nation. *Names have beenThe Rockefeller Foundationchanged to protect identities.7'