[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1645 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1645

To amend title 13, United States Code, to require that the Secretary of 
  Commerce produce and publish, at least every 2 years, current data 
       relating to the incidence of poverty in the United States.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 2, 1993

  Mr. Sawyer introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
               Committee on Post Office and Civil Service

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend title 13, United States Code, to require that the Secretary of 
  Commerce produce and publish, at least every 2 years, current data 
       relating to the incidence of poverty in the United States.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Poverty Data Improvement Act of 
1993''.

SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds that--
            (1) more than $20,000,000,000 is provided to State and 
        local governments each year, under various Federal programs, 
        based on data relating to income and poverty status;
            (2) the infrequency with which such data is collected 
        diminishes their reliability and usefulness for public policy 
        purposes;
            (3) the relative lack of intercensal data can prevent 
        Federal funds from reaching those populations that are in 
        greatest need, as reflected in the dramatic and often 
        unforeseen shifts in the way Federal funds are reallocated 
        following each decennial census;
            (4) the more frequent collection of data relating to income 
        and poverty status would allow policymakers to target scarce 
        program funds more effectively and in a more timely fashion; 
        and
            (5) the cost of producing the data needed to achieve the 
        ends described in paragraph (4) would be small compared to the 
        amounts that are distributed based on such data.

SEC. 3. REQUIREMENT.

    (a) In General.--Subchapter IV of chapter 5 of title 13, United 
States Code, is amended by inserting after section 181 the following:
``Sec. 181a. Data relating to poverty
    ``(a) The Secretary shall produce and publish for each State, 
county, and local unit of general purpose government for which data is 
compiled in the most recent census of population taken under section 
141(a), and for each school district, data relating to the incidence of 
poverty. Such data may be produced by means of sampling or any other 
method that the Secretary determines will produce current, 
comprehensive, and reliable data.
    ``(b) Data under this section--
            ``(1) shall include, for each State, county, local unit of 
        general purpose government, and school district referred to in 
        subsection (a), the number of children aged 5 to 17, inclusive, 
        in families below the poverty level; and
            ``(2) shall be published in 1995 and at least every second 
        year thereafter.
    ``(c) If the Secretary is unable to produce and publish the data 
required under this section for any State, county, local unit of 
general purpose government, or school district in any year specified in 
subsection (b)(2), a report shall be submitted by the Secretary to the 
President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of 
Representatives, not later than 90 days before the commencement of the 
following year, enumerating each government or school district excluded 
and giving the reasons for the exclusion.
    ``(d) In carrying out this section, the Secretary shall use the 
same criteria relating to poverty as were used in compiling the then 
most recent census of population taken under section 141(a) (subject to 
such periodic adjustments as may be necessary to compensate for 
inflation and other similar factors).''.
    (b) Conforming Amendment.--The table of sections for chapter 5 of 
title 13, United States Code, is amended by inserting after the item 
relating to section 181 the following:

``181a. Data relating to poverty.''.

                                 <all>