Barbara Lee Bill Sets Goal of Cutting Poverty in Half by 2017
(Washington, DC) – Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), Co-Chair of the House Out-of-Poverty Caucus, today introduced a resolution designed to set a national goal of cutting poverty in the U.S. in half over the next ten years.
“It is unacceptable that, in the richest nation in the world, there are 37 million people living in poverty,” said Lee. “Eradicating poverty needs to be a national priority, and the best way to do that is to set some measurable goals. If we are serious about this, we need to commit to cutting the number of people living in poverty in this country in half over the next ten years.”
Thirty seven million Americans, more than the population of the state of California, are living in poverty in the U.S. today, an increase of five million since 2000. The impact of growing poverty is disproportionately falling on minorities. Since 2000, median income has declined by 2.1 percent among non-Hispanic whites, by 7.4 percent among blacks, and by 5.9 percent among Hispanics. Almost one quarter of African Americans and 21.9 percent of Latinos live in poverty, compared to 8.6 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 9.8 percent of Asians.
Lee’s bill mirrors the goals put forward in a report released in April by the DC-based Center for American Progress, which based its recommendations for cutting poverty on four principles: promoting decent work, providing opportunity for all, ensuring economic security, and helping people build wealth. The recommendations included: raising the minimum wage and indexing it to inflation, expanding the earned income and child tax credits, promoting unionization by making it easier for employees to vote to join a union, offering child care assistance for low income families, guaranteeing early education for all and providing two million people with “opportunity housing vouchers.” The report is available online at: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/04/poverty_report.html .
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