[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 14162-14163]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           POVERTY IN AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Lee) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. LEE of California. As founder of the congressional Out of Poverty 
Caucus, I rise today to continue sounding the alarm about the tide of 
poverty sweeping across this country.
  Last week, the United States Census Bureau released its annual 
report, Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United 
States: 2010. It revealed a disturbing but unsurprising spike in the 
poverty rate--from 14.3 percent in 2009 to a staggering 15.1 percent in 
2010.
  In 2010, 46 million people lived in poverty in America. That is 
essentially the populations of California and Michigan combined who are 
living in poverty in America. It's really a moral outrage that in the 
richest country in the world so many Americans are facing or are living 
in poverty, lacking economic opportunity and economic security.
  Shamefully, our children bear the greatest burden. In 2010, 22 
percent, or one in five children, lived in poverty. That's in America. 
Poverty continues to hit communities of color much harder, as the facts 
show. In 2010, the poverty rate for whites rose to 9.9 percent. The 
poverty rate for African Americans rose to 27.4 percent. The poverty 
rate for Latinos rose to 26.6 percent. For Asian Pacific Americans, the 
2010 poverty rate of 12.1 percent remained the same.
  This massive poverty crisis we are facing didn't happen overnight. 
Poverty rates began to rise during the Bush administration as 8 years 
of failed economic policy wiped out all of the gains made during the 
Clinton years. The cochairs of the Out of Poverty Caucus saw this day 
coming, and while little attention has been placed on the poor, we are 
determined to prick the conscience of this Congress and to act to stem 
the tide of poverty across America.
  The members of the congressional Out of Poverty Caucus sent a letter 
asking the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, more commonly 
known as the supercommittee, to stay in line with prior deficit 
reduction agreements of the past by not cutting programs that provide 
basic human services--the safety net. Of course, now more and more 
Americans need this safety net. We must not balance the budget on the 
backs of the most vulnerable. Unfortunately, now middle-income people 
are falling into the ranks of the poor. As many of us know, millions of 
people are just one paycheck away from poverty.
  We really can turn the tide on poverty. The solution to boosting this 
stagnating economy, reducing our long-term deficits, and lifting 
Americans out of the crisis of poverty is really the same. We must 
invest in creating more stable, living wage jobs. In fact, the most 
effective anti-poverty program is an effective jobs program. That is 
why Congress must immediately pass the President's American Jobs Act to 
begin the work of creating jobs, reducing poverty, and jump-starting 
our economy.
  Poverty rates have increased in rural and urban communities 
throughout the country. The American Dream has turned into a nightmare 
for millions. This is a crisis, but we must turn the tide, and we must 
start today. So I

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urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to stop playing 
politics and to act on jobs now. We can and we must act urgently to 
turn the tide of poverty sweeping across the Nation--a tide, really, 
that knows no party affiliation.

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