[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 5 (Thursday, January 9, 2014)]
[House]
[Page H113]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             WAR ON POVERTY

  (Ms. SCHAKOWSKY asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the 50th 
anniversary of President Johnson's announcement of the war on poverty.
  I recently had the opportunity to visit the Lyndon B. Johnson 
Presidential Library and Museum in Austin, Texas, and I was astonished 
by just how much he and the Congress were able to accomplish during his 
time in office. Since 1967, poverty has declined by more than a third. 
Still, 49.7 million Americans live in poverty, including 13.4 million 
children, but the war on poverty and the programs really worked. Here 
are some of them:
  Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, the Elementary and Secondary 
Education Act, Head Start, school lunch, child nutrition, migrant 
assistance, Job Corps, legal assistance, small business and rural 
loans, and Indian reservation programs.
  All of those were put into effect and really worked.
  Dana Milbank had an article today in The Washington Post where he 
said, And what is the response to the 50th anniversary? It is the 
Republicans declaring war on the war on poverty, as they have for the 
last 50 years.
  It is time for us to work together and continue to end poverty.

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