A Champion of Baby Bonds, Pressley Urges IRS to Ensure ‘Trump Accounts’ Don’t Exacerbate Wealth Gap, Worsen Inequality

Text of Letter (PDF)

BOSTON – Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), a member of the House Financial Services Committee, wrote to the Trump Administration calling for equitable, comprehensive guidance on the implementation of the newly created child savings accounts, known as Trump Accounts. Congresswoman Pressley, who has long championed Baby Bonds as a tool for closing the wealth gap, is urging the Administration to ensure the new savings accounts do not widen the wealth gap and worsen economic inequality.

The Congresswoman’s letter comes as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) fails to issue timely guidance to families, businesses, non-profits, and local and state governments on the implementation of Trump Accounts.

“The United States of America is proclaimed as the land of opportunity where even a child born into poverty could live a prosperous life. However, for too many families, that opportunity remains out of reach, due to policy decisions that unfairly prioritize the wealthy and leave our most vulnerable families behind,” wrote Congresswoman Pressley in her letter to Treasury Secretary and Acting IRS Commissioner Scott Bessent. “The creation of new child savings accounts has the potential to be a transformative tool for economic justice, but I am concerned that provisions in the Republican-passed H.R. 1 will perpetuate inequality.”

In 2019, Congresswoman Pressley introduced Baby Bonds legislation with Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) that would create a federally funded savings account for every child in order to make economic opportunity a birthright rather than a privilege. The bill was purposefully and expertly drafted to disrupt intergenerational poverty, close the racial wealth gap, and give every 18-year-old support to start a business, buy a house, or pursue higher education. 

In her letter, Congresswoman Pressley urged the IRS to develop regulations to alleviate the harm Trump Accounts would cause by expanding wealth inequality, ignoring poor and low-income families in urban and rural communities, and causing children born into rich families to disproportionately benefit while others continue to struggle. The Congresswoman noted that unlike Baby Bonds, Trump Accounts increase taxes on families, lose money based on stock market decline, and provide a meager one-time contribution as part of a limited five-year program.

“It is important to deliver real benefits to the American public, which requires sharing details in a transparent manner,” the Congresswoman continued. “Absent clear implementation details, parents of newborns will not save, businesses and non-profits will not contribute, and local and state governments will not be able to support their constituents.

Congresswoman Pressley also asked Secretary and Acting Commissioner Bessent to answer a series of questions about the implementation of Trump Accounts and urged him to meet with Democrats, experts, and advocates before 2026.

A copy of the Congresswoman’s letter is available here.

In a Washington Post op-ed published in June, Congresswoman Pressley and economist Darrick Hamilton urged Congress to reject Trump Accounts and instead embrace Baby Bonds to close the wealth gap and advance economic justice. In March 2023, Rep. Pressley and Senator Booker urged the Treasury Department’s advisory committee to study the merits of Baby Bonds and embrace them in its upcoming reports to the Treasury Department about ideas that could advance greater equity in the economy.

Rep. Pressley has consistently advocated for race-conscious policies to help close the racial wealth gap in America, uplift Black, brown, and other marginalized communities.

• Building on the legacy of Black women in the civil rights movement, Rep. Pressley led a historic resolution calling for a federal job guarantee.  
• In a House Financial Services Committee hearing, Congresswoman Pressley questioned Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on the issue of full employment and the Civil Rights history of the Federal Reserve’s dual mandate. Powell conceded, for the first time in Federal Reserve history and on the Congressional record, that the Fed alone cannot get the United States to full employment.
• Congresswoman Pressley, along with Senator Cory Booker, is the lead co-sponsor of the American Opportunity Accounts Act—also known as Baby Bonds—legislation that would create a federally-funded savings account for every American child in order to make economic opportunity a birthright for every child and help close the racial wealth gap.
• Rep. Pressley introduced the Equity in Government Act to codify racial equity across federal agencies and improve government services for underserved communities.
• Rep. Pressley has also called on the five largest banks in America to provide a detailed update on the racial equity commitments the institutions made following the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
• Rep. Pressley was also a leading voice in Congress urging President Biden to cancel student debt. Following years of advocacy by Rep. Pressley—in partnership with colleagues, borrowers, and advocates like the NAACP—the Biden-Harris Administration announced a historic plan to cancel student debt that stands to benefit over 40 million people.
• Congresswoman Pressley has also consistently sounded the alarm on the crisis of unemployment among Black women in America, and demanded the Federal Reserve take action.

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