[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 147 (Wednesday, September 28, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6238-S6241]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. HEINRICH (for himself and Ms. Collins):
  S. 3458. A bill to establish programs to improve family economic 
security by breaking the cycle of multigenerational poverty, and for 
other purposes; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 
Pensions.
  Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, I rise to introduce the Two-Generation 
Economic Empowerment Act, alongside my colleague and friend from Maine, 
Senator Susan Collins. We are going to hear from her in a few minutes. 
I want to say a few words about an issue that is all too familiar to 
many of our States from coast to coast--those represented by Democrats, 
those represented by Republicans.
  Earlier this month, we saw positive economic data from the Census 
Bureau that showed that over the last year, American middle-class and 
low-income families saw the largest growth in their income in 
generations.
  I thank my colleague from Maine for her incredible work on the 
legislation we are going to be introducing today. There are simply far 
too many families in my home State of New Mexico and across this Nation 
who are still struggling to make ends meet, even to put food on the 
table and certainly to escape multigenerational poverty.
  Last year, nearly one in five New Mexicans lived below the federally 
defined poverty rate. Think about that, one in five. These are mothers, 
fathers, and grandparents trying to support themselves and their 
families. They are young adults trying to get ahead and lay the 
groundwork for the future they have envisioned for themselves, but 
often the dreams we have of going to school and getting a job are cut 
short by the reality that these once rites of passage on the way to the 
American dream are further and further out of reach.
  I believe all of us have a responsibility not to accept this status 
quo. Without critical programs such as Medicaid or the National School 
Lunch

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Program, even more families in New Mexico would be struggling to 
overcome poverty in the wake of the great recession. It is time to 
recognize that the Federal Government's current approach to poverty is 
far too disconnected. It is too fragmented and too disjointed to truly 
address the needs of these working families, and too often it simply 
ignores the very nature of the family itself.
  I will tell you what I mean by that. I grew up on a small farm and 
ranch operation. In addition to attending our cattle, both of my 
parents worked full time, often more than full time. My dad was a 
utility lineman. My mother worked in a factory inspecting wheels on an 
assembly line. Like a lot of Americans, I learned the dignity of hard 
work long before I ever held my first job. I learned it at home.
  As a father of two children, I understand the challenges of 
parenthood today, especially when both parents work. In many cases in 
New Mexico, that means both parents may work more than one job. Much of 
our time is centered on our jobs and our children. For many of us, this 
leaves very little time for ourselves or our own educational pursuits.
  If parents are able to find time to attend school and better 
themselves, they have to fit their class schedule around those times. 
They have to fit their class schedule around their child's school and 
their childcare hours. All of this limits parents' access to a full and 
rigorous class schedule and it extends the number of semesters a parent 
is in school and it increases their student loan debt. The way the 
Federal Government tries to help increased opportunities for working 
families isn't working well enough to address these daily challenges 
these families face.
  When multiple programs exist to help low-income parents and children, 
they have individual streaming causing silos and fragmentation. Low-
income families trying to access these benefits often have trouble 
navigating the multiple eligibility requirements and the multiple 
service providers. Families get discouraged and lose out on benefits 
because each one has its own set of requirements.
  Even the local service providers who are trying to help families get 
ahead are finding this disjointed Federal landscape difficult to 
navigate. Addressing the needs of children and parents separately and 
without a comprehensive strategy is leaving too many children and 
parents behind and diminishing the whole family's chances of reaching 
economic security.
  That is why I have teamed up with my Republican colleague from Maine, 
Senator Susan Collins, to introduce the bipartisan Two-Generation 
Economic Empowerment Act. Our legislation will increase opportunities 
for working families through programs targeting parents and children 
together with support aimed at increasing economic security, 
educational success, social, capital, and health and well-being.
  By aligning and linking existing systems and funding streams, our 
legislation will lead to improved outcomes for parents and children 
while improving the effectiveness of service delivery. Our legislation 
will make Federal agencies coordinate more effectively through a new 
Interagency Council on Multigenerational Poverty. The council will 
align and link departments that are already working to address poverty 
in order to reduce the redundancy and the redtape we see and to make 
sure programs across different agencies are actually working in a 
complementary fashion.
  We are also looking for new ways to incentivize investments in 
comprehensive two-generation programs. Our bill will encourage Federal, 
State, tribal, and local governments to test innovative ways to using 
Federal resources by allowing increased flexibility and blending 
discretionary grant funds across multiple Federal programs in exchange 
for a greater accountability. We will create a social impact bond pilot 
project to encourage private foundations and investors to fund new two-
generation programs.
  Over the last year, I visited programs in my home State of New Mexico 
that are already using a two-generation approach. In Albuquerque, I met 
with participants of the CNM Connect Services Program at Central New 
Mexico Community College. This program assists students--many of whom 
are parents or children of parents attending CNM--with academic 
support, financial coaching, and career services, and it connects 
families with behavioral health services and childcare. By streamlining 
and coordinating all of these support services for students and their 
children, families are able to learn and grow together.
  At CNM, I met Maricela Cormona, who was a full-time mother who 
couldn't focus on her own education until her two children started an 
Even Start and Head Start early childhood education program. Thanks to 
a two-generation program that connects parents to childcare and 
education, she earned her GED, and she started taking courses at CNM to 
become a social worker. She was working with other parents to help them 
raise healthy families and receive an education.
  In Sante Fe, I toured the United Way Early Learning Center. This hub 
of early learning and family support can serve as a model for creating 
a path of opportunity for all hard-working Americans, using a 
comprehensive two-generation approach. At a state-of-the-art facility, 
the center offers year-round, full-day services for children and 
families, including hot meals, a health center, teaching and learning 
technology, employment and social service assistance for parents, and a 
home visitation program.

  One mother I met there, Brenda Olivas, was connected with United Way 
when she was 4 months pregnant. The home visitation supported her as 
she and her husband raised their young son Angel. When I talked to her, 
Brenda had just started working at the early learning center, helping 
to care for the children. Brenda said that she hoped to enroll in 
classes at Santa Fe Community College and put herself on a path toward 
a successful career.
  I also hosted an outreach session for families, education 
administrators, and representatives of nonprofit service providers at 
Dona Ana Head Start. I heard from working parents and service providers 
about the challenges and obstacles that stand in the way of their 
educational and career opportunities.
  Just last month, I visited La Clinica de Familia's Early Head Start 
Child Care Partnership Center. The center cares for children while 
their parents work or further their education at New Mexico State 
University and Dona Ana Community College. I had a chance to read 
``Brown Bear, Brown Bear,'' which is not only one of the children's 
favorite books, but it is also one of my favorite books. My kids loved 
that book when they were little.
  I think it is time to build on the progress we have seen demonstrated 
through the data at programs like these. It is time to bring in more 
stakeholders and start actively changing the trajectory of these 
families and communities. This is the type of challenge that will have 
to be fought on the frontlines through public-private partnerships on 
college campuses and in community centers, on ball fields and in health 
clinics, and in our towns both large and small. No matter what your ZIP 
Code is, you should have an opportunity to use already existing Federal 
resources or attract private investment to implement the two-generation 
approach in your community because, as the data suggests, it works. 
That is exactly what the Two-Generation Economic Empowerment Act aims 
to achieve.
  I wish once again to thank my colleague Senator Collins for her hard 
work to help create this legislation, and I also thank the great minds 
at places like Ascend at the Aspen Institute and great advocacy 
organizations in my home State of New Mexico, such as New Mexico Voices 
for Children, for working with me and my staff on these real, 
innovative solutions to create more economic mobility.
  As we work to advance this bipartisan bill in the Senate, I hope the 
rest of my colleagues will see why this is an issue that should not 
only be bipartisan but should command our urgent attention because the 
status quo is not something any of us should accept.
  It is important to note that our proposal doesn't add any new Federal 
spending or add to the deficit. Our legislation simply takes existing 
funding programs that we already have in place and makes sure we are 
investing more

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wisely, more efficiently, and more effectively to meet the needs of our 
children and their families. This is a fiscally responsible way to 
proceed, and it is a moral imperative.
  We all know that all the potential we could ever ask for sits in 
homes, churches, and classrooms across this great Nation. By helping 
parents, grandparents, and children overcome poverty and pursue their 
dreams together, we can put whole families on a path toward economic 
security and create a greater economic future for all of our 
communities.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I am pleased to join my colleague from 
New Mexico, Senator Heinrich, in introducing the Two-Generation 
Economic Empowerment Act of 2016. It has been a great pleasure to work 
together to craft this important legislation, and I commend him for his 
leadership.
  Our bipartisan bill proposes a new approach to fighting poverty, one 
that focuses on addressing the needs of children and their parents 
together--two generations--in order to break the cycle of 
intergenerational poverty.
  More than 50 years after President Lyndon Johnson declared a War on 
Poverty, poverty remains a troubling reality for millions of Americans 
who struggle to find the resources they need for the basic necessities 
of life. In the time since that worthy war was first declared, the 
Federal Government has spent trillions of dollars--taxpayer dollars--on 
programs to combat poverty. Yet the truth is that the poverty rate has 
barely budged. In 1966, the poverty rate was 14.7 percent. Just this 
month, the U.S. Census Bureau announced that the poverty rate for 2015 
was 13.5 percent. I would note that is actually 1 percentage point 
higher than the year before the start of the 2008 recession. The point 
is that despite our good intentions and despite the expenditure of 
trillions of taxpayer dollars, we have made very little progress in 
lifting families out of poverty.
  Every State in our Nation is impacted by poverty. In my State of 
Maine, the poverty rate stands at 13.4 percent, just slightly below the 
national rate. Poverty spans rural towns and urban centers, race and 
ethnicity, men and women, old and young. It diminishes the chances of a 
bright future for far too many of our children.
  Just this weekend, the Maine Sunday Telegram reported a 
heartwrenching story of a 5-year-old girl named Arianna, who lived in a 
makeshift tent in the woods outside of Portland. This is a picture of 
Arianna, a darling little girl only 5 years of age, living outside in a 
very crude tent. Thanks to the involvement of a State social worker and 
the Maine Homeless Veterans Alliance, who were committed to keeping the 
family together, this story, fortunately, has a happy ending. Arianna 
and her mother now live in an apartment in Auburn, ME, and she has 
finally just started kindergarten.
  We know that the well-being of children like Arianna is tightly 
linked to the well-being of their parents. Just last week, I chaired a 
hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Housing and Transportation. We 
examined whether there is a better way to provide housing assistance to 
vulnerable families and individuals. Both OMB Director Shaun Donovan 
and HUD Secretary Julian Castro have often pointed out to our 
subcommittee that the single biggest predictor of a child's 
opportunities--and even that child's life expectancy--is the ZIP Code 
of the community where the child grows up.
  Federal programs have certainly helped many of those living in 
poverty to manage the day-to-day hardships they face, but the fact is 
that these programs have failed to achieve their promise of breaking 
the cycle of poverty that has trapped too many families. We should not 
accept such outcomes here in the land of opportunity.
  Our bipartisan legislation proposes a fresh approach that is aimed at 
equipping both parents and their children with the tools they need to 
succeed and become self-sufficient. It marks an important first step 
toward reevaluating our approach to poverty-reducing programs, 
encouraging innovative, more effective uses of tax dollars, and 
encouraging programs that allow us to tailor them to the needs of 
specific families--programs that will work.
  Too often today our Federal programs address certain issues in silos, 
overlooking the fact that the needs of families in poverty are almost 
always interconnected. They shouldn't have to try to navigate the 
various programs that are available to put together the funding streams 
they need to lift themselves out of poverty. Our bill would change 
that. It encourages an integrated, personalized approach.
  Let me give an example. Helping a mother secure safe, high-quality 
child care can have a positive impact not only on her ability to 
succeed in the workforce but also by improving her child's readiness 
for school. While that child is receiving care and an education, her 
mother can be connecting with a skills training program to help her 
improve her family's income. Connecting these various Federal programs 
has the potential to lift entire families out of poverty and break that 
vicious cycle of intergenerational or multigenerational poverty.
  The Two-Generation Economic Empowerment Act would create an 
Interagency Council on Multigenerational Poverty to coordinate efforts 
across Federal agencies and departments aimed at supporting vulnerable 
families. The Council would also make recommendations to Congress on 
ways to improve coordination of anti-poverty programs and to identify 
best practices. Similarly, our legislation would instruct the 
Government Accountability Office, GAO, to study and report to Congress 
and the Council on the barriers that prevent grant recipients from 
collaborating and identify opportunities for improved coordination.
  Our bill would also authorize a pilot program to provide additional 
flexibility for States and local governments to improve the 
administration of programs using two-generation models. It would 
authorize five States to participate in two-generation performance 
partnerships. This would allow, for example, States like Maine and New 
Mexico to blend together similarly purposed funds across multiple 
Federal programs in order to help poor families. It aims to reduce 
duplicative reporting and application requirements. This kind of 
redtape and bureaucracy often deters local agencies and organizations 
from making the most effective use of tax dollars to ensure 
accountability because that is what this is all about. This bill would 
also require that these pilot programs be targeted at specific programs 
designed to reduce poverty, and it would measure the outcomes and the 
effectiveness of these programs.

  Finally, our bill would create a pilot program to incentivize public-
private partnerships around poverty solutions through social impact 
bonds. These public-private partnerships harness philanthropic and 
private sector investments to implement proven social programs. This 
concept is based on legislation that has been introduced by two of our 
colleagues, Senator Orrin Hatch and Senator Michael Bennet. I would 
note that through these partnerships, government funds are only paid 
out when the desired outcomes are met.
  With this bill, we have the chance to make a permanent difference in 
the lives of millions of families in this country who are struggling 
and living in poverty. We have the opportunity to finally break the 
multigenerational cycle of poverty. We have the chance--after 50 years 
of pouring trillions of dollars into well-intentioned programs that 
have had some good benefits but have not produced the kinds of lasting 
results we need, we have the opportunity to change that.
  Just as a child's ZIP Code should not determine his or her future 
success, so should the bureaucratic, siloed approach to poverty not 
make it so difficult for families to get the help they need to escape 
lives of poverty. We don't want more cases where a 5-year-old girl is 
living in a makeshift tent outside of the largest city in my State.
  The Federal Government can be an effective partner in providing 
funding, in providing opportunities for parents and their children, 
lifting up families, and, in turn, building stronger communities. State 
and local governments--the laboratories of experimentation in this 
country--can be at the forefront of these efforts. And the increased 
flexibility proposed by our bill would help reform practices across 
government.

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Building public-private partnerships would also help to spur innovative 
approaches and would help generations to come to take part and be full 
participants in the American dream.
  Again, let me thank my partner Senator Heinrich for his leadership on 
this bill. I urge our colleagues to take a look at the fresh, 
innovative approach we have developed to moving families out of poverty 
by breaking down the silos in Federal programs, by encouraging local 
and State and private sector and nonprofit organizations collaboration, 
and by giving them the tools they need to succeed.
  Mr. President, let's not be here 50 years from now noting that the 
poverty rate is the same as it was when Lyndon Johnson declared the War 
on Poverty 50 years ago, which would then be 100 years ago. Let's try a 
different approach.
  Thank you, Mr. President.

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