[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3803]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       ADDRESSING THE WEALTH GAP

  (Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute.)
  Ms. MAXINE WATERS of California. Mr. Speaker, today, I have 
introduced the addressing the wealth gap resolution which calls on 
Congress to recognize the wealth gap and the racial wealth gap as 
national economic crises and focus its efforts on their elimination.
  This country is facing the widest wealth gap since 1983. The 
statistics are alarming. Wealthy families make nearly seven times as 
much as middle class families and 70 times as much as lower class 
families. African Americans have 13 times and Latinos have 10 times 
less wealth than White households. White households have $100,000 more 
in retirement savings than African Americans and Latinos.
  The cause of the record-level wealth gap stems from a structural 
crisis that started well before the Great Recession. The recession hit, 
and the housing market collapsed and made everything worse.
  In the aftermath, middle-income families and people of color have had 
to endure income inequality, slow wage growth, skyrocketing student 
loans, and continued unequal access to quality education and barriers 
to the housing market. These are problems that widened the gap and 
require Congress to implement pragmatic solutions.
  We cannot sit idly by and expect things to change. This is why I am 
introducing the addressing the wealth gap resolution. The first step to 
resolving this problem is acknowledging that it exists, and I encourage 
all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join and focus on 
the goal of rebuilding wealth in America.

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