Hoyer, Lee Lead Letter to the Office of Management and Budget Director Opposing Changes to the Official Poverty Calculation
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (MD) and Majority Leader Task Force on Poverty and Opportunity Chair Barbara Lee (CA-13) sent a letter to Acting Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought urging him not to implement the recently announced changes to the federal poverty calculations. Majority Leader Hoyer and Chair Lee were joined on the letter by Rep. TJ Cox (CA-21), Vice Chair on Rural Poverty; Rep. Sylvia Garcia (TX-29), Vice Chair on Urban Poverty; Rep. Deb Haaland (NM-01), Vice Chair on Families and Children Living in Poverty; Rep. Ben McAdams (UT-04), Vice Chair on Economic Opportunity, Education, and Workforce Development; and Rep. Joe Neguse (CO-02), Vice Chair on Housing and Transportation.
In the letter, the Members wrote: “The ramifications of the proposal to lower the poverty threshold are widespread, but the process laid out by this Administration to consider such a monumental change is deeply flawed and inadequate. If there were to be changes to the Census poverty thresholds, the administration should consider more robust research that would explore all of the issues – including all of the ways that the current poverty thresholds understate the income needed for families to afford the basics, and the evidence that low-income households can face higher rates of inflation than the economy overall – and far more input from experts, policymakers, and the public than allowed for by a paltry 45-day comment window provided in the May 7th notice.”
Commenting on the letter, Leader Hoyer and Chair Lee said: “The proposed unilateral change to the Official Poverty Measure (OPM) by the Trump Administration would undermine basic assistance for millions of families facing economic insecurity and the well-being of millions more Americans by making the official poverty thresholds less accurate as a measure of the income families need to afford the basics. The Administration’s decision comes at a time when millions of American families are struggling to make ends meet. Nutrition assistance runs out before the end of the month, children often go hungry in the summer without school meals, and Medicaid does not reach nearly enough families. Instead of kicking millions off proven anti-poverty programs, the Administration should be working with Congress to revise and expand opportunities for assistance to people living in poverty.
“No one in the richest nation in the world should have to choose between keeping the lights on and putting food on the table, but this reality is true for almost 40 million Americans living in poverty and others on the economic brink,” continued Leader Hoyer and Chair Lee. “The Majority Leader’s Task Force on Poverty and Opportunity is committed to eliminating poverty once and for all, and we will continue to use legislative measures to reach that end, including doing all we can to block this cruel proposal.”
A signed PDF of the letter can be found here.
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