[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 17136-17142]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      CBC HOUR: POVERTY IN AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 5, 2011, the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. 
Christensen) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the 
minority leader.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I want to again thank our leader, 
Nancy Pelosi, and the Democratic Caucus for allowing the Congressional

[[Page 17137]]

Black Caucus to have this Special Order hour once again.
  Before I begin my discussion today, though, I want to take this 
opportunity to wish a very happy birthday to my daughter Karida Green. 
I am blessed to have two wonderful daughters and four fantastic 
grandchildren, whom I was able to spend the past weekend with as we 
celebrated Kobi's, one of my grandsons, 5th birthday.
  I also want to extend congratulations to the Federal team that's now 
in place in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Congratulations to our new 
district court judge, Wilma A. Lewis, who joins Chief Judge Curtis 
Gomez and Senior Sitting Judge Raymond Finch in the district court of 
the Virgin Islands; to congratulate U.S. Attorney Ronald W. Sharpe, who 
had his investiture this morning; and also Chief Marshal Cheryl Jacobs, 
who was sworn in about 2 weeks ago. We welcome all of them and thank 
President Obama and Attorney General Holder for their nominations and 
the Senate for their timely confirmation.
  And let me once again thank all of those men and women who have 
served in our Nation's Armed Forces and those who serve today for their 
courage and their sacrifice, and I also want to thank their families 
who serve and sacrifice along with them. We in the Congressional Black 
Caucus and, indeed, I think, the entire Congress look forward also to 
sometime in the not-too-distant future to honor the Montford Marines 
with a well-deserved and long overdue Congressional Gold Medal.
  But this evening, Madam Speaker, the Congressional Black Caucus 
continues our focus on the need for jobs and to reiterate the call for 
the leadership of this Congress to bring legislation to the floor that 
would create jobs. But tonight we also want to call our attention to 
the continuing plight of the poor in this country and how the budget 
and other battles that have been fought on the floor of this House and 
over in the Senate have been hurting them and what is at stake for them 
also if the supercommittee does not come to a balanced agreement that 
would reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion or more--and, I would say, 
hopefully more.
  Earlier this month, nine Members of the House joined the Fighting 
Poverty with Faith initiative and took the food stamp challenge. We 
agreed to live on what is the average food stamp allotment for a week, 
$31.50, and I can tell you that it is not easy.
  There are over 48 million Americans today who are food insecure. More 
than 16 million children live in households that are food insecure in 
the richest country in the world. Millions face hunger every day in 
this country, a fact that we should all be ashamed of.
  These numbers are only getting worse, not just because of the 
recession but because almost all of the growth of wealth in the past 
decade went to the top 10 percent of people in this country. For most 
Americans, their incomes dropped; their incomes really crashed. And the 
gap between the rich and the poor got wider, a dangerous trend for a 
country already struggling to maintain its leadership in the world, 
something everyone should want to do everything in our power to 
maintain.
  For all of our 40 years of existence, the goal of the Congressional 
Black Caucus has been to close the gap that leaves some communities 
behind or some out altogether; to close the income gap, the job gap, 
the housing gap, the health gap, the education gap, and all of the 
disparities that have been so doggedly persistent for some communities, 
not because those on the losing side didn't want them to change or 
didn't work for change but because the opportunity too often was just 
not there.
  Colleagues, America is the land of opportunity and all of us, not 
just the 43 members of the Congressional Black Caucus but all 441 or, 
really, all 541, need to be working together to make sure that it is 
for all and not just for some.
  This country was founded on the principle that all men and women are 
created equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights, not to be 
separated from us. Inalienable rights--the right to life, liberty, and 
the pursuit of happiness.
  Many times even when we pass programs that should have helped, they 
don't reach communities that need them most. Those communities in some 
cases are not prepared to compete or they may not be priorities for the 
Governors of those States who often get to decide where those programs 
go. And that's why our assistant leader, James Clyburn, joined with 
Congressman Rangel to develop the 10-20-30 program, an initiative that 
they have taken to the White House and to the Republican as well as the 
Democratic leadership.
  Under this initiative, which seeks to help out the most chronically 
distressed communities, 10 percent of all funding and programs would go 
to communities with 20 percent or higher poverty levels for 30 or more 
years. And it may surprise everyone, but two-thirds of all of the 
jurisdictions that would qualify for that 10 percent are in Republican 
districts. I think if it were under any other administration or if it 
were proposed by someone on the other side of the aisle, perhaps this 
would have been passed long ago; but today those communities, not all 
of which are racial and ethnic minority in makeup--many are, but not 
all are--would continue to suffer and, in essence, be denied those 
inalienable rights, and that's not the country that we know and love.
  At our annual legislative conference in September, we heard from 
researchers who reported on persistent poverty and its impact on health 
and the quality of life in the communities that are chronically 
distressed. Their report tracked the stubborn persistence of 
concentrated poverty in U.S. metropolitan areas over a period of nearly 
40 years. Neighborhoods with poverty rates above 30 percent have been 
recognized as places with few opportunities for employment and 
education, high levels of disinvestment and crime, and meager civic 
participation. Living in such neighborhoods over extended periods of 
time reduces the life chances of children, whether their families are 
poor or not.
  The report also looked more deeply at a subset of urban neighborhoods 
that can be characterized as the ``original ghetto,'' extensive areas 
whose cores were almost exclusively nonwhite and poor in 1970. The 
report showed that the Nation continues to suffer from racially and 
economically divided cities, undercutting efforts to reach important 
goals for our country, for health, for education, for employment and 
civic engagement.
  More specifically, that report found that concentrated poverty has 
risen substantially since 2000. About one in 11 residents of American 
metropolitan areas, or 22.3 million people, now live in a neighborhood 
where 30 percent or more of their neighbors live in poverty. Such 
neighborhoods suffer from private sector disinvestment, poor public 
services and schools, and unacceptable levels of exposure to crime, 
natural hazards, and pollution. The number of people in high-poverty 
neighborhoods increased by nearly 5 million people since 2000, when 
18.4 million metropolitan residents, 7.9 percent of the total, lived in 
high-poverty neighborhoods.

                              {time}  2010

  The rise since 2000 is a significant setback compared to the progress 
of the 1990s. The number of people in high-poverty neighborhoods 
stabilized in the 1990s and the concentrated poverty rate fell, fueling 
optimism that faith-based initiatives and rising prosperity were 
reversing a crisis that had grown dire in the 1980s.
  Today, however, it appears that the improvement of the 1990s was just 
a temporary respite. The increase in the number of Americans living in 
high-poverty neighborhoods tracks directly with the Nation's increasing 
poverty rate. Between 2000 and 2009, the number of people in poverty 
grew by 10 million, from 33 million to 43 million, raising the poverty 
rate from 11.3 percent to 14.3 percent in 2009. Today it's over 15 
percent. And we all have seen the Pew report which shows that white 
wealth is 20 times more than African American wealth, 18 times more 
than Hispanic wealth, and that more African Americans live in extreme 
poverty. If this trend continues, it is a very bad

[[Page 17138]]

prognosis for the economic health of our Nation.
  Also, everyone knows that I'm a family doctor by training, training 
that I received right here in the Nation's Capital at George Washington 
University's School of Medicine and Howard University Medical Center, 
so the health of my fellow Americans is very important to me. So I have 
to just point out that poverty is a sure prescription for poor health 
and for premature, preventible disability and death. Just eliminating 
poverty alone would improve the health of millions and the terrible 
health standing of our country, which is an embarrassment. Or let me 
quote one of our Surgeon Generals, ``An affront both to our ideals and 
to the ongoing genius of American medicine,'' as was said by former 
Surgeon General Margaret Heckler back in 1985, and it continues to be 
true today.
  As many have said, the American Dream has become a nightmare for too 
many in this country, including those who recently came in pursuit of 
it, our immigrant community. The Rebuild American Dream movement and 
many of the Occupy Wall Street protests are all about making it a good 
dream again, and not just a dream, but an opportunity to make it a 
reality. As quiet as it's kept--and we, Democrats, have really been too 
quiet--Democrats have always been about keeping the American Dream 
alive for everyone who lives and who comes to this country, for making 
opportunity available to all for a solid education, good health, a 
decent job, a home in a safe neighborhood, and a secure retirement. We 
have never lost sight of or lost faith in this. And we continue to 
fight for it, despite the big money opposition and the special 
interests who think they will win out in the end, but they won't 
because we are on the side of the American people, and they will always 
side with what is in their best interests and not in the best interests 
of our country.
  Before we went out over our break--one more break than we needed--
Congresswoman Barbara Lee introduced H.R. 3300, the Half in Ten Act of 
2011, which proposes to cut poverty in half within the next 10 years. 
In 2008, House Concurrent Resolution 198 unanimously passed Congress 
and committed us to doing just that, cutting poverty in half. The new 
bill provides us with a framework for doing it, and we need to honor 
the commitment that we made in 2008 and pass the bill, H.R. 3300. The 
Half in Ten Act would establish a Federal interagency working group on 
reducing poverty. The working group will develop and implement a 
national plan to reduce poverty by half in 10 years while working to 
eliminate extreme poverty, which I talked about earlier, child poverty, 
and the historic disparity in poverty rates in communities of color. 
The working group will improve how we collect data on those who are in 
poverty and near poverty, and make regular reports on their progress so 
that Congress and the American people can better understand the impact 
of our policies and programs and make more informed decisions about how 
we as a people treat our most vulnerable.
  The working group will be charged with developing and implementing a 
national plan on poverty with four distinct but interrelated goals: 
one, to reduce the national poverty rate by half in 10 years; two, to 
eliminate extreme poverty, those with income under 50 percent of 
poverty; three, to eliminate child poverty; and four, to eliminate the 
historic disparity in poverty rates in communities of color. That 
working group would consult with experts across all relevant Federal 
agencies as well as outside poverty groups who work directly with those 
most affected by those Federal programs so that we can develop a 
comprehensive, far-reaching, sustainable plan.
  I really want to thank the gentlewoman from California, Congresswoman 
Barbara Lee, our former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, for 
her work on eliminating poverty, for her leadership of the Out of 
Poverty Caucus, and for introducing H.R. 3300.
  We have another bill that will soon be introduced by Congresswoman 
Gwen Moore which also speaks to poverty. She's preparing a bill that 
would reform TANF, and I think everyone would agree that TANF has not 
really worked as it was intended to. As we look at it, it's created a 
permanent underclass. Block grants are locked in at 1994 levels. Many 
who move off of assistance after 5 years still don't have jobs, and 
they don't have child care. The rise in food stamp usage shows where 
those pushed off of assistance have gone.
  The average age of a TANF recipient is 7.8 years of age. Twenty 
percent of children live in abject poverty in this country. It has 
damaged the social safety net that was meant to respond to the 
countercyclical nature of the economy. When there is a recession, as 
there is now, it's supposed to be that last bit of help. So the bill is 
still being drafted, but some of the things that it would do are, it 
would stipulate that the number one goal of TANF is child poverty 
reduction. It would stop the clock during a recession. It would 
guarantee child care for TANF work-eligible recipients. It would lift 
all time limits on work participation requirements and the 30 percent 
safe cap on education. And it would adjust the Federal work 
participation requirements so that States could get credit when 
individuals with disabilities participate in work-related activities, 
even if the nature of those activities or the number of hours do not 
match the standard TANF requirements. Those are just some of the things 
that we expect to have going into the bill. And again, in addition to 
H.R. 3300, when Congresswoman Gwen Moore introduces her TANF reform 
bill, we hope that all of our colleagues will support it.
  There is an elephant in this hallowed room and every room in this 
Congress, and that's, of course, the deficit-cutting proposal that the 
supercommittee is responsible for bringing forth in about 9 days. 
Actually, it would be more than a proposal because we would have to 
vote on it as it is, just up or down, no amendments. We hear that there 
will, more than likely, within those 9 days be an agreement. And if 
there's any hope for a fair and balanced agreement, it's because we 
know that the House Members that the Democratic Caucus has placed on 
the committee will work to ensure that it is. And those are our 
assistant Democratic leader Jim Clyburn, vice chair of the caucus 
Xavier Becerra, and our Budget Committee ranking member Chris Van 
Hollen.
  We've said over and over again that this plan needs to include a 
further extension of unemployment benefits, which is something that has 
been demonstrated over and over again as a guaranteed stimulus for the 
recession that we're not yet out of. But it also, of course, provides a 
needed bridge until we can get this Congress to create jobs again. It's 
been over 300 days, and we still have yet to see the Republican 
leadership produce and enact a jobs agenda for this country, something 
that we all know is so badly needed.
  And just to talk about where we are, in the third quarter of 2011, 
31.8 percent of 14 million Americans who are out of work have been so 
for more than a year. That amounts to 4.4 million people. Older workers 
are more likely to remain out of work for a year or longer; 43 percent 
of unemployed workers older than 55 have been out of work for at least 
a year. Although those with more education are less likely to lose 
jobs, once unemployed, long-term joblessness is distributed across all 
educational levels. And we keep hearing about employers who might have 
a job opening, saying for those who are jobless, don't apply. Now that 
just does not make any sense.

                              {time}  2020

  Unemployment cuts across every industry and occupation. More than 20 
percent of unemployed workers in every industry have been out of work 
for a year or longer. And in mining, manufacturing, transportation, 
utilities, financial activities, the percentage of workers who have 
been jobless for a year or longer is over 40 percent. We cannot get out 
of this recession without jobs.
  So, again, we call on the leadership of this body to enact a jobs 
agenda. We,

[[Page 17139]]

the Democrats, have proposed and requested in the strongest way 
possible that the American Jobs Act be a part of the supercommittee's 
report. It in itself, because of the tax and other revenue it would 
generate, is an important part of reducing our deficit. We also want 
other revenues to be a part of that agreement. This is not in any way 
class warfare. The poor and the middle class have already given up 
much, have made major concessions and sacrifices. And in the interest 
of saving our country, they would likely do more up to a point. But now 
it's time for everyone else to give. It's the patriotic thing to do.
  Unless some, or even all, of the Bush tax cuts, which were meant to 
be temporary and should have expired already, are allowed to expire, 
the majority of the deficit will come out of programs that would help 
the middle class and the poor. The country I pledge allegiance to is a 
fair country. Congress has a sacred responsibility to keep it fair, and 
with liberty and justice for all.
  If no agreement is reached or if the House and Senate fail to pass 
whatever agreement is reached, mandatory across-the-board cuts will be 
imposed. And the President has already said he will prevent any 
attempts to stop the mandatory cuts from taking place, and I hope that 
threat extends to mandatory defense cuts, because what we keep hearing 
is that those defense cuts will just not ever happen. And if defense is 
spared, the mandatory discretionary cuts would further come out of 
programs that would help the poor and the middle class and would hurt 
them even more than some of the budget agreements we have already 
reached. Some of the cuts that this Congress has already made would 
hurt the poor and hurt jobs.
  Just in 2011, 250 programs were cut that probably eliminated about 
370,000 jobs. Those are just some of the things that we have already 
lost. There are almost 60,000 jobs lost from the spring budget cuts of 
the Federal Government in three areas, with secondary impact on a wide 
array of businesses, ranging from automobile producers to local 
restaurants and dry cleaning establishments. Federal support for law 
enforcement, environmental cleanup of nuclear weapons production 
facilities, and General Services Administration Federal buildings fund, 
those are some of the cuts that have just wiped out jobs at a time when 
we need to be creating them.
  So we need to make sure that we allow our economy to grow. We need to 
continue, or begin, to invest in education and health care and 
renewable energy and innovation of all kinds. The only way we can do 
this is with a big agreement, but one that includes far more revenue 
than the mere $300 billion that is now on the table.
  So we want balance and fairness from the supercommittee. We want a 
jobs agenda enacted. We want to see the American Jobs Act be a part of 
it. We want to see unemployment payments continued and extended beyond 
where they are today, and we want to go further to make sure that 
poverty is reduced in our country because, again, over 16 million 
children in this country are going hungry every day and living in 
poverty; and that is something that any country worth its salt should 
not tolerate.
  I would now like to yield to my colleague from Texas, Congresswoman 
Sheila Jackson Lee.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. I thank the gentlelady from the Virgin 
Islands for her leadership, and I'm delighted to join her in what I 
think is an enormously important discussion. Oftentimes, Congresswoman, 
we don't get a chance to have this kind of discussion when we are 
debating bills on the floor of the House. So let me, first of all, add 
again to your statistics. The more we can recite for people what the 
problem is, the better off we are.
  So you will see us standing over the next couple of days and weeks, 
and isn't it interesting as we approach Thanksgiving and then the 
Christmas holiday for many of us, and holidays in different names, 
Chanukah for many, and many other kinds of celebratory holidays that 
call upon fellowship and food to realize how many are impoverished in 
this Nation. So I'm delighted to stand with the Congressional Black 
Caucus, our friend, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, our chairperson, 
Chairman Cleaver, and yourself to firmly stand committed to combating 
poverty, eliminating hunger, and providing health insurance for all 
citizens.
  Let me just say in light of that, the Supreme Court indicated that 
they will take up the health care bill. But I'm going to join some 
pundits and take a risk and say it's going to be upheld. I know there 
is a lot of rubbing of the hands and excitement because they see in the 
eyesight the death knell for the Affordable Care Act.
  But the good news is that one of the judges that upheld the 
Affordable Care Act was a conservative judge who analyzed our right to 
require individuals to have insurance for the greater good--that's not 
the legal interpretation. And I believe there is sufficient numbers on 
the court that will look beyond politics and realize that the heavy 
burden of health care is a heavy burden on the economy. And if you are 
a conservative, you will look more closely at individual 
responsibility. That's what the Affordable Care Act is, along with 
preventive care and protecting children. So I'm going to be an 
optimist, and I'm looking forward to the Supreme Court's decision.
  But our numbers show one of every six Americans is living in poverty, 
a total of 46.2 million people. This is the highest number in 17 years 
in a country with so many resources. And you've heard me say this 
before, our country is not broke. It can belt tighten. It can move 
dollars around. I'm glad that the Congressional Black Caucus that is 
talking about create, protect, and rebuild has the answers.
  Let me just say that children represent a disproportionate amount of 
the United States' poor population. I chair the Congressional 
Children's Caucus. In 2008, there were 15.45 million impoverished 
children in the Nation, 20.7 percent of America's youth. The Kaiser 
Family Foundation estimates that there are currently 5.6 million Texans 
living in poverty; 2.2 million of them are children; and 17.4 percent 
of households in the State struggle with food insecurity.
  In my district alone, the 18th Congressional District, a very 
historic district, there are 190,000 people living below the poverty 
line, the highest number of people living in poverty in 17 years; and 
then we are thinking about cutting vital social services such as the 
supplemental excess, SNAP program, that fed 3.9 million residents of 
Texas in April 2011; the WIC program; and the Census Bureau also 
reported that there are 49.9 million people in the country without 
health insurance. We've already discussed that. And Texas happens to be 
the State with the highest number count.
  All of that, and you're literally taking the front door, if there is 
one, opening the door and kicking people to the street.
  I just want to deviate for a moment as I go over some very important 
aspects that I think, joining with the Congressional Black Caucus, that 
if they would only listen, if you would only listen, I believe would 
move us on a pathway of creating jobs, just as we spoke about in the 
jobs tour that we participated in this summer.
  But I want to be very clear, the Second Mile in Pennsylvania was 
labeled as an organization that dealt with at-risk children. Those are 
poor children. Some might ask: Where is she going here? They are the 
most vulnerable. They are the most needy. And because those children 
were vulnerable, because those parents were vulnerable, because they 
were looking for relief, looking for a child to have some sort of, if 
you will, activity and comfort, maybe even food--I'm sure those 
programs and trips out of town might have also had resources that 
children do not have--when a child is vulnerable, they become a target 
for the most heinous of acts.
  If I might deviate and indicate that I intend to introduce 
legislation on two counts, one to suspend any Federal funding to any 
entity, academic, nonprofit, State and local government, prosecutors' 
office that has covered up

[[Page 17140]]

and not prosecuted or not reported the sexual abuse of a child, 
excluding if it is an academic institution, funding for scholarships 
and Pell Grants; and to also indicate funding, ramping up funding, for 
the Department of Justice for anyone who carries a child over State 
lines for the intent of sexually abusing a child.

                              {time}  2030

  What an untoward national image and international image we have just 
gotten. I don't worry about football. I'm not interested in the State. 
I'm not interested in the particular academic institution. I'm not 
pointing fingers, and I don't know the coach's name. I just know that 
in the course of the activity of this alleged perpetrator, there may be 
many more vulnerable, poor children which we're talking about tonight, 
the most impoverished; and that one person, among others, saw a 
physical sexual act and did nothing about it.
  And so poverty is not only a family not having enough to eat, maybe 
not having clothing, maybe not having a place to live, but it also 
means it puts a child in the most horrible, horrific of conditions; 
almost to the extent, even though you would say that the predator is 
sick, but it puts that vulnerable child--because that parent may be 
vulnerable, that parent may not be home. They may be a loving parent. 
They may be struggling with three jobs, and they need a place for their 
child. The child may need the comfort and nurturing of an adult, and 
that child then becomes a victim. So don't think that we're standing 
here and arguing against poverty just to be arguing. It is a systemic 
atmosphere and condition that will allow you to be victimized.
  Let me go to the supercommittee as I talk about what the CBC, 
Congressional Black Caucus, is looking at. I will follow the quotes of 
some I have heard who testified before the committee. I had the 
privilege of sitting in on one meeting, not very long, and I think they 
are dedicated Members of Congress. But we must know that this is not in 
the regular order. This was out of the order, and it came about through 
the forced need to lift the debt ceiling. In essence, we were taken 
hostage. So, frankly, I'm going to suggest that the supercommittee 
yield. They can go through the 23rd, but, in essence, accept the 
inevitable that there will be no agreement and that this Congress come 
back in 2012, because we have until 2013 for the sequestration, come 
back in 2012 and do our business and respond to the suggestions of the 
Congressional Black Caucus and legislation that many of us have 
introduced to create jobs, to balance the revenue, and do our work.
  And so I want to suggest that there are many programs. The 
Neighborhood Stabilization Program has been touted all over America. 
What it does is it brings dollars into depressed areas where these 
vulnerable children live, and it provides stabilization dollars, making 
good on 100,000 properties with $7 billion, and it allows these 
properties to be restored for families. In the course of doing that, 
you create jobs and you don't have these big signs that say, 
``Foreclosure.''
  And then, of course, the National Housing Trust, if Congress can 
provide at least a billion dollars to fund the National Housing Trust, 
which is a mechanism for affordable housing. When a child has a room, a 
light, a desk, and a bed and that family feels comfortable, they are 
less vulnerable to sexual predators, to not having resources, to being 
thrown to the wolves, if you will. And it will create 15,000 jobs.
  Unemployment insurance that many of us have worked on and joined 
Congresswoman Lee and Congressman Scott to extend to the 99ers and to 
make sure that they can put bread on their table, pay their light bill 
and get gas to go look for a job, it will save 500,000 jobs--500,000 
jobs.
  Why is no one listening? It's a simple process. And has anyone heard 
of a country moving forward without investment in its people? And 
that's what we are arguing. Very quickly, we have supported this for so 
long. No one will listen. Everybody that is outsourcing is taxed, and 
that will generate resources that will allow us to invest back into the 
Treasury. Then we can invest in the National Housing Trust. We can 
invest in the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. We can invest in the 
99ers, and we can provide money to those who are in need.
  Give a tax holiday for the first $20,000 on payroll tax, which will 
provide the opportunity for small businesses and put income in, if you 
will, the pockets of many who are in need, who week to week make ends 
meet and are very much in need of that. As well, to help those who have 
been chronically unemployed, to not discriminate against them but to 
give a payroll tax holiday in order to hire the chronically unemployed; 
so when they see ``Help wanted,'' they will be excited about hiring 
someone because they have that benefit.
  By the way, can we make an announcement here? We are not broke. 
Companies have trillions of dollars in their bank accounts, and so do 
the banks, but they keep saying to us they're afraid to invest and let 
the money go because it's not a stable economy. How much louder do I 
have to say it's a chicken and egg? Hire people. That's a stable 
economy. They invest back into the economy, they begin to buy things, 
and then you begin to manufacture. It's a chicken and egg. It's the 
cart and the horse.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Absolutely.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. Reestablish manufacturing. If manufacturing 
makes things, we've got to buy things. How do you buy things? You have 
money to buy it. And I've been supporting this for a very long time. 
I'm part of the Manufacturing Caucus.
  In addition, it's very important that we do as the WPA did during the 
time of the horrible aftermath of the Depression, and the Workforce 
Investment Act would be assisting 8 million people and give all of 
these people a chance to fix the infrastructure all across America. 
Cars will stop going into potholes, bridges will stop having cracks in 
them, and we will be able to put people to work.
  TANF, if it were fully funded and if it had an emergency contingency 
fund that many of us have been speaking about, this would make 
available--create temporary jobs for adults and summer jobs, but, more 
importantly, it would create 240,000 jobs.
  And the same thing with the infrastructure. Again, how many people 
have traveled with a limited amount of gas but traveled over bridges 
and freeways and found them in disrepair? This is a simple process.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Absolutely.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. And I would argue vigorously that it is 
disappointing that we have not been listened to and members of the 
Congressional Black Caucus and the Democratic Caucus, and even today 
the supercommittee is speaking about not fulfilling the promise of 
putting the revenue on the table necessary to counter the cuts. I, 
frankly, don't want sequestration. The vulnerable will be hit the 
hardest with all of the cuts that are pointed toward Medicare, 
Medicaid, Social Security, food stamps, and others that they allege 
that are protected, but I would argue that aspects of it are not. I 
made a public commitment to my veterans last Friday that I would not 
allow for my vote and my support one iota of veterans' benefits to be 
cut.
  I'm so tired of people talking about that we're not willing to look 
at Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. No, I am not willing to 
look at it as it has been proposed by my Republican friends. They know 
full well how they can cut this. They can follow the Affordable Care 
Act and close the doughnut hole on Medicare part D, the most expensive, 
heinous, insulting affront to spending money in the United States of 
America that was voted on in the Republican majority, Medicare part D 
that all seniors hate.

                              {time}  2040

  Our Affordable Care Act, if allowed to be implemented, would close 
the doughnut hole--that's one way of doing it--and seniors would jump 
for joy. In addition, if you start talking about provider benefits, I'm 
going to publicly say I oppose it. Why? Because I cannot

[[Page 17141]]

trust the knife. What does the knife do? It goes in and slashes 
hospitals and home care and others possibly. And when you slash it, you 
do jeopardize seniors who are in hospitals.
  We have to find a way to cut the waste, fraud and abuse; and we've 
determined that waste, fraud and abuse can save us billions of dollars. 
So out of my lips, I will not support cutting Medicare, Medicaid, and 
Social Security, or discretionary funding. I will support the creation 
of 8 million jobs. I will support investing in America's people. I will 
support getting rid of at-risk children, meaning not getting rid of 
them but their condition, so that we don't have to find at-risk 
children. What a disgrace that we take that in such a way that we 
categorize. These are at-risk children, these are poor children, and we 
just accept it. They're numbers. Well, at-risk children are 
impoverished, malnourished, don't have good health care, and are 
victims. And they can be victims of the most heinous sexual predator 
story, act, of our recent times. Even we've heard of the faith 
institution that has been under such siege that has made changes--the 
Catholic Church spoke out today--because it is a disease, it is an 
epidemic, and it comes out of poverty and vulnerability. And if we 
don't cut out the vulnerability of our children and families--and in 
this great country, even the Bible says the poor will always be with 
us, but they also say be busy until He comes. And that means we should 
be busy until the Lord comes, for those of us who believe, should be 
busy until He comes, making the corrections that we have to make.
  So I want to thank the gentlelady for allowing me to join her and to 
express, as the chairwoman of the Congressional Children's Caucus, the 
work that should be done, the work that we've done on the issues of 
bullying and obesity and on nutrition. And areas like that are added to 
this work that has been done by the Congressional Black Caucus.
  And I just simply say: Is anybody listening? Because we have the 
solution. And if they would only listen, 8 million jobs, children who 
are protected, and families who can get back on their feet and begin to 
invest back in this country.
  With that, I thank the gentlelady for yielding.
  Madam Speaker, I stand today with my colleagues from the 
Congressional Black Caucus to discuss the recent on poverty and 
healthcare. Together, we stand, firmly committed to combating poverty, 
eliminating hunger, and providing health insurance for all our 
citizens.
  I am, as we all are, deeply troubled by the report issued by the U.S. 
Census Bureau. 1 of every 6 Americans are living in poverty, totaling 
46.2 million people, this highest number in 17 years. In a country with 
so many resources, there is no excuse for this staggering level of 
poverty.
  Children represent a disproportionate amount of the United States 
poor population. In 2008, there were 15.45 million impoverished 
children in the nation, 20.7% of America's youth. The Kaiser Family 
Foundation estimates that there are currently 5.6 million Texans living 
in poverty, 2.2 million of them children, and that 17.4% of households 
in the state struggle with food insecurity.
  In my district, the Texas 18th, more than 190,000 people live below 
the poverty line. We must not, we cannot, at a time when the Census 
Bureau places the number of American living in poverty at the highest 
rate in over 17 years, cut vital social services. Not in the wake of 
the 2008 financial crisis and persistent unemployment, when so many 
rely on federal benefits to survive, like the Supplemental Nutrition 
Access Program (SNAP) that fed 3.9 million residents of Texas in April 
2011, or the Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) Program that provides 
nutritious food to more than 990,000 mothers and children in my home 
state.
  The Census Bureau also reported there are 49.9 million people in this 
country without health insurance. This is an absolute injustice that 
must be addressed. We can no longer ignore the fact that nearly 50 
million Americans, many of them children, have no health insurance.
  Texas has the largest uninsured population in the country; 24.6% of 
Texans do not have health care coverage. This includes 1.3 million 
children in the state of Texas alone who do not have health insurance, 
or access to the healthcare they need.
  It is unconscionable that, despite egregiously high poverty rates, 
Republicans seek to reduce spending by cutting social programs that 
provide food and healthcare instead of raising taxes on the wealthiest 
in the nation, or closing corporate tax loopholes.
  Perhaps my friends on the other side of the aisle are content to 
conclude that life simply is not fair, equality is not accessible to 
everyone, and the less advantaged among us are condemned to remain as 
they are, but I do not accept that. That kind of complacency is not 
fitting for America.
  I firmly believe that all Americans can come together to protect the 
most vulnerable citizens in the nation, to provide relief for the poor 
and the hungry, because 46 million of our fellow countrymen living in 
poverty, 15 million of them children, is simply unacceptable.
  I urge my colleagues in Congress, and people across the nation, to 
look at what unites us rather than what divides us. We are linked by 
our compassion, and bound by the fundamental edict of the American 
dream that says we will strive to provide our children with a better 
life than we had. We can, and we must reach a compromise that will not 
cut valuable services from those who need government the most.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Congresswoman Jackson Lee, for joining 
us. Thank you for the work that you do on the Judiciary Committee, and 
especially for your strong defense of children and the rights of 
children and the protection of children in this country. We look 
forward to the introduction of your bills as well, and we ask for the 
support of our colleagues for them, both as cosponsors and when they 
get to the floor.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. Will the gentlelady yield?
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I yield to the gentlewoman.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. If I might, as I close, I did mention 
education. Many of us know that we are facing huge cuts in education. 
Again, who does it hit? The vulnerable children in public schools. And 
I just have to, before I leave the microphone, mention the North Forest 
Independent School District, the only majority minority school district 
left in the State of Texas, targeted for closing, not because it's not 
welcomed by parents, teachers, and others, but because the State simply 
wants to be on a budget-cutting trip, if you will. And I leave the 
podium by saying to my Governor, Governor Perry, as I've talked about 
impoverished children, don't close, and don't condemn our children who 
are trying to learn in North Forest Independent School District. And to 
my colleagues: Education creates jobs--and I mentioned the teachers--
but also, it invests in our children.
  I thank the gentlelady for yielding to me.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you. And thank you for the optimism about the 
outcome of the Affordable Care Act at the Supreme Court. I wish I 
shared your optimism, but we'll take that as a very positive outlook on 
the outcome, and I hope that indeed your predictions are correct.


                             General Leave

  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their 
remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of the Special 
Order this evening.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas, Madam Speaker, after more than 
300 days in the majority, Republicans have failed to enact a much 
needed jobs agenda that will strengthen America's weakened economy. 
While failing to put forth a solid jobs agenda, they have 
simultaneously said no to President Obama's American Jobs Act. Sadly 
students, teachers, first responders, and America's families are paying 
the price.
  The clock is running out as the deadline for a deficit plan from 
Joint Select Committee on Deficit reduction looms ahead. In these last 
few days, I challenge the Joint Select Committee to put politics aside 
and to work together to create jobs and protect America's most 
vulnerable citizens.
  As the unemployment rate remains high, millions of Americans continue 
to live at or below the poverty line. Texas has the second highest rate 
of food insecure children in the

[[Page 17142]]

nation. Last year 4.2 million Texans either experienced hunger outright 
or altered their consumption to avoid going hungry. I urge the Joint 
Select Committee to reject any policies that will increase hunger and 
poverty in America.
  We must ensure that the Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction focuses 
on economic growth and job creation to stop the spread of hunger and 
poverty in our country. Lastly, I 'urge the Committee to do whatever it 
takes to prioritize steady growth of our investments in science, 
technology, and STEM education. It is when our economy is hurting the 
most that we should be redoubling our efforts to innovate our way into 
a brighter future of new jobs, new technologies, and untold societal 
benefits.
  Ms. LEE of California. Madam Speaker, again, I rise to bring 
attention to the Crisis of Poverty in America.
  As a founder and Co-Chair of the Congressional Out of Poverty Caucus, 
in 2008, I was proud to introduce H. Con. Res. 198, which committed the 
House of Representatives to setting a goal of cutting poverty in half 
in ten years. I was proud that the House passed my resolution 
unanimously.
  I hope that together this Congress can take the first steps toward 
that goal.
  The Crisis of Poverty in America is nothing short of a national 
emergency and we must begin to act like it.
  The U.S. Census recently released their supplemental poverty 
estimates which confirms what every other survey and report has shown, 
that communities of color continue to face tragically higher rates of 
poverty than their white counterparts.
  27.4 and 26.5 percent of Black and Hispanic communities suffer under 
poverty respectively when compared to the 9.9 percent rate of their 
white counterparts. This is no accident, rather the direct result of a 
long history of disparity and a lack of economic, educational and 
entrepreneurial opportunity in our communities.
  We know that this disparity is reflected in the rates of 
unemployment, in the ranks of the uninsured, in the impact of health 
care disparities, in education, in income and in the already vast and 
expanding wealth gap.
  Doing everything that we can to reduce poverty and to end this 
terrible racial disparity is not only the morally right thing to do, 
but it is the best way to jump start the economy as well.
  There is simply no way forward for our economy that leaves 
communities of color and the poor behind.
  As I said, it is time to take the first step on the road to cutting 
poverty in half in America.
  I have introduced H.R. 3300, the Half in Ten Act of 2011, which 55 of 
our colleagues have co-sponsored.
  My bill would establish the Federal Interagency Working Group on 
Reducing Poverty.
  The Working Group will develop and implement a national plan to 
reduce poverty in half in ten years.
  They would also work to eliminate child poverty, extreme poverty, and 
finally bring an end to the historic and on-going disparity in poverty 
rates in communities of color.
  The Half in Ten Act would dramatically improve how the federal 
government responds to the needs of families in poverty.
  It is time to work together to dramatically improve access to 
opportunity for low income Americans so that they can climb up the 
economic ladder and reignite the fire of every American Dream.
  It is clear that our policies and programs addressing poverty have 
not kept pace with the growing needs of millions of Americans. It is 
time we make the commitment to confront poverty head-on, create 
pathways out of poverty and provide opportunities for all.
  I encourage my colleagues to support H.R. 3300.
  Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________