Thanks to a new federal program that aims to cut child poverty in half, millions of Americans will receive monthly cash payments from the government starting this week.

“It’s the most transformative policy coming out of Washington since the days of F.D.R.,” said Senator Cory Booker, (D-NJ). “America is dramatically behind its industrial peers in investing in our children. We have some of the highest child poverty rates, but even families that are not poor are struggling, as the cost of raising children goes higher and higher.”

The American Rescue Plan, passed in March, expands the Child Tax Credit from $2,000 to $3,600 for each child under 6 or $3,000 for children ages 6 to 17. Americans don’t have to wait until tax season for the benefit; households will receive half a year’s CTC in six monthly payments beginning on July 15th. For parents of young children, that’s an extra $300 per month through the end of the year. The rest of the credit can be claimed when filing 2021 taxes.

The expanded child tax credit payments under Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID relief package will start going out this Thursday.

About 39 million households — and 88% of children in the U.S. — will be covered by the monthly payment. https://t.co/ueFkjybOp0

— Axios (@axios) July 12, 2021

Crucially, even American who don’t pay taxes are eligible for the CTC, a change in policy that CNN contextualizes:

The relief package makes the tax credit fully refundable so that more low-income parents can take advantage of it. It had been only partially refundable — leaving roughly 23 million children unable to get the full credit because their families’ incomes are too low.

Roughly 39 million households qualify for the CTC. The Washington Post explains:

The expanded portion of the credit begins to phase out at a modified adjusted gross income above $75,000 for singles and married people filing separately, $112,500 for heads of household and $150,000 for couples. The phaseout reduces the credit by $50 for each $1,000 (or fraction thereof) by which your modified adjusted gross income exceeds these income thresholds.

The federal government on Thursday will begin distributing more than $100 billion in financial assistance to parents, but advocates fear that families too poor to owe taxes may not have information on file with the IRS. https://t.co/3MXEzFLORE

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) July 13, 2021

Families that filed recent tax returns will automatically receive the payment, and the Biden administration is ramping up efforts to reach low-income families that may not have filed taxes in recent years. They have built an online portal and teamed up with community groups to encourage households to setup an account with the IRS. More from CNN:

The IRS and nonprofit organizations are also putting up fliers in local support agencies, grocery stores, food banks, domestic violence shelters, community events and elsewhere. They are using social media and trying to spread the word about the credit and the ways families can file for it through houses of worship, neighborhood groups and other trusted sources.

The expanded CTC benefits expire at the end of 2021, but Biden wants to keep them on the books for another five years.

“He thinks this is a central benefit that will help families, help get women back to work,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said last month.

There is bipartisan momentum to permanently enlarge the program. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) has led the charge, but some of his GOP colleagues view the poverty-fighting money as a return to the “failed welfare system.”

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) recently wrote that the new payments represent a “radical plan” that will benefit people with “histories of crime or substance abuse, with no questions asked or help provided.”