[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 527-528]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           THE WAR ON POVERTY

  (Ms. BASS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. BASS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join my colleagues in marking 
the 50th anniversary of the war on poverty.
  When I was 20 years old, I went to work for the Greater Los Angeles 
Community Action Agency, which was the administrative agency for the 
war on poverty in Los Angeles. This experience helped shape my 
commitment for public service.
  The war on poverty has had a real, lasting, and positive legacy; but 
there is still much more that needs to be done. According to the U.S. 
Census, roughly one in three Americans lived in poverty for at least 2 
months from 2009 to 2011, one in three.

[[Page 528]]

  Congress needs to make sure that we are doing all we can to help 
Americans by creating jobs and addressing the structural causes of 
poverty.
  Without a doubt, the war on poverty was more than a speech; it was a 
commitment backed up by public policy and resources to help Americans 
escape the tyranny of poverty. On this golden anniversary, let us 
return to this commitment in our laws, our programs, and our 
communities.

                          ____________________