[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 4 (Wednesday, January 8, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E26]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


               THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WAR ON POVERTY

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JOHN CONYERS, JR.

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, January 8, 2014

  Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, a half-century ago today, President Johnson 
stood before Congress and declared ``unconditional war on poverty.'' 
Since that declaration we have seen many victories, but also many 
defeats. Battles may have been won, but the war is far from over.
  President Johnson's first State of the Union committed his 
administration to the pursuit of his fallen predecessor's agenda. Not 
out of sorrow for President Kennedy, but out of conviction for the 
principles he represented.
  President Johnson defined the mission of the War on Poverty as 
helping Americans achieve the American dream. He spoke in terms of the 
average citizen and his ``hopes for a fair chance to make good; his 
hopes for fair play from the law; his hopes for a full-time job on 
full-time pay; his hopes for a decent home for his family in a decent 
community; his hopes for a good school for his children with good 
teachers; and his hopes for security when faced with sickness or 
unemployment or old age.
  He identified poverty as not the cause but the symptom of America's 
problems. He believed the cause lay in a lack of education and 
training, a lack of proper clothing and housing, a lack of safe 
communities and the sense of security needed to pursue a better life.
  He challenged the nation to pursue bold solutions. He called for 
expanded investment to rescue distressed communities; to engage aimless 
youth in productive purposes; and to ensure basic levels of food, 
income, and medical security.
  We have done much in the intervening years to achieve his vision. 
Today, we have the Affordable Care Act helping Americans to receive 
vital medical services that were previously out of reach. We have 
numerous programs helping communities offer their children more 
opportunities to succeed. We have rooted out the most abject forms of 
poverty that once prevailed throughout much of our rural communities. 
The poverty faced by our nation's seniors prior to Johnson's 
declaration has seen tremendous improvement because of his call to 
action. And we have expanded workforce training programs and 
educational opportunities for everyone, sending millions of Americans 
to college who are the first in their families to attend.
  Unfortunately these admirable gains reflect less urgency and 
dedication than the War on Poverty should merit. The gains in the first 
decade after President Johnson announced this endeavor were remarkable, 
with the official poverty level hitting its all-time low in 1973. But 
since then new economic challenges have arisen that work against those 
at the bottom, limiting the ability of the impoverished to raise their 
position.
  Today, we have an inflation-adjusted minimum wage that is less than 
70% of what it was at the end of President Johnson's administration. We 
have vast inequities in our schools that make the quality of children's 
education first and foremost a function of address and not their own 
effort or merit. These inequalities are magnified in an era of 
skyrocketing executive pay, corporate profitability, and worker 
productivity, where workers must subsist on stagnant wages that cannot 
even keep up with historically modest inflation. Just a couple of weeks 
ago, we made the problem worse by cutting off unemployment assistance 
to 1.3 million long-term job seeking Americans in a job market that 
simply cannot offer them meaningful employment.
  I urge my colleagues to cease their assault on the objectives 
President Johnson declared so long ago. Quit fighting the healthcare 
law and help us improve, refine, and implement it for the good of all 
Americans. Quit denigrating people who worked for decades, but through 
no fault of their own are now facing extended unemployment. They aren't 
resting on a hammock; they are clinging to anything that floats in an 
economic storm that we helped Wall Street create. Quit bargaining away 
the social safety net that prevents a family confronted with an 
unexpected layoff or family illness from losing their home and their 
future.
  But those actions are merely the very least of what we should be 
doing. If we want to make sure that every person actually has a chance 
to pursue happiness--which as President Johnson pointed out is the 
reason that we so jealously guard our security and liberty--then we 
need to finally win this war. It is time for us to recognize that in 
the wealthiest nation in the world and in the history of the world, we 
simply cannot tolerate the sort of persistent poverty that prevents 
generations of citizens from providing for themselves and their 
families.
  Winning this prosperity will require us to take action just as our 
predecessors did when President Johnson first called upon them. We can 
begin by taking up my bill, H.R. 1000, which would aggressively pursue 
a program of job training, and infrastructure and community investment 
until we reach full-employment. We should also pass a bill to raise the 
minimum wage and index it to inflation for this generation of workers--
the most productive of any generation in history--so they can realize 
the same fair break their parents and grandparents had. And we must 
reauthorize extended unemployment insurance to help salvage the dignity 
and security of men and women who lost their jobs because of the Wall 
Street bankers we bailed out in 2008.
  These are the first steps to ensuring that every American is able to 
enjoy the fruits of our forebears and our own toil. They are not enough 
to solve the breadth of problems that we face, but their enactment 
would lead to a meaningful improvement in the lives of those who are 
beginning to lose faith in us and themselves.
  I urge my colleagues to take action this session of Congress that 
reflects the standards President Johnson laid out a half-century ago 
and to pursue an agenda that elevates the poor rather than entrenches 
the rich. We did it before, we can do it again.

                          ____________________