110 HCON 198 EH: Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States has a moral responsibility to meet the needs of those persons, groups and communities that are impoverished, disadvantaged or otherwise in poverty. U.S. House of Representatives 0 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

IV 110th CONGRESS 2d Session H. CON. RES. 198 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRENT RESOLUTION Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States has a moral responsibility to meet the needs of those persons, groups and communities that are impoverished, disadvantaged or otherwise in poverty.

Whereas poverty can be seen as a deep, structural problem that implicates our value system and our educational and economic institutions; Whereas poverty may be defined as the lack of basic necessities of life such as food, shelter, clothing, health care, education, security, and opportunity; Whereas policy initiatives addressing poverty have not kept pace with the needs of millions of Americans; Whereas many experts believe that the lack of an equitable distribution of housing choices across the country leads to isolation and concentrated poverty; Whereas the number of Americans living in poverty has risen by over 5,000,000 since 2000; Whereas there were 37 million Americans living in poverty in 2005; Whereas the official poverty rate in 2005 was 12.6 percent; Whereas 24.9 percent of African Americans, 21.8 percent of Hispanics, 25.3 percent of Native Americans, 10.9 percent of Asian Americans, and 8.3 percent of Whites lived in poverty in the United States in 2005; Whereas in 2005 a family of 4 was considered poor under the U.S. Census Bureau’s official measure if the family’s income was below $19,971; Whereas the poverty rate for children 18 years and younger (17.6 percent) remained higher than that of 18–24 year-olds (11.1 percent) and that of people 65 and older (10.1 percent) in 2005; and Whereas the number in poverty increased for people 65 and older by almost 400,000 since 2000: Now, therefore, be it

That it is the sense of Congress that the United States should set a national goal of cutting poverty in half over the next 10 years.

Passed the House of Representatives January 22, 2008.Lorraine C. Miller,Clerk.