Poverty
For Congresswoman Barbara Lee, it is both unacceptable and deeply immoral that the wealthiest nation on Earth has more than 45 million people living in poverty. In her roles as the Chair of the Whip’s Task Force on Poverty and Opportunity and the Co-chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Poverty and Economy Task Force, Rep. Lee is working with her colleagues to find comprehensive solutions that address the root causes of poverty. Congresswoman Lee supports investments in job creation and training, proven anti-poverty programs and early childhood education, and open access to higher education.
As the single mother to two boys in the 1970s, Congresswoman Lee experienced firsthand the importance of American anti-poverty programs. When she was raising her sons and taking classes, public assistance was a bridge over troubled waters. Programs like unemployment insurance, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly called Food Stamps) are critical to lifting families out of poverty, and Congresswoman Lee will continue to fight to preserve these essential lifelines for all families.
Priorities:
- Half in Ten Act of 2013: The Half in Ten Act, HR 2182, would set a goal of ending poverty in America, with the initial goal of cutting it in half in ten years and ensure that anti-poverty spending is coordinated on the federal, state, and local level. The bill, which has 65 cosponsors from 30 different states, emphasizes creating pathways out of poverty for millions of Americans.
- Protecting Unemployment Compensation: During the Great Recession, nearly 9 million hardworking Americans lost their jobs. Rep. Lee believes Congress has a responsibility to support them while they look for work. She’s fought to extend emergency unemployment compensation in order to keep these families out of poverty.
- Preserving the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) gives many families the resources to consistently put food on the table. Since 2007, Congresswoman Barbara Lee has been taking the Food Stamp Challenge – where, for a week, she lives on just $4.50 per day, the average benefits for a SNAP recipient – to bring awareness to the importance of this program.
- Raising the Minimum Wage: President Obama showed leadership by raising the minimum wage for federal workers to $10.10 an hour. Congresswoman Lee supports a living wage, calculated by regional differences, for all workers. She believes raising the minimum wage to $10.10 for all workers would be a good first step. Studies show that a higher minimum wage helps the economy overall – people will stay longer in jobs, be more productive, and stimulate the economy by spending their increased wages. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that an increase in the minimum wage could lift nearly a million people out of poverty.
Accomplishments:
- Congressional Commitment to Halt the Spread of Poverty: In 2013, Congresswoman Lee successfully included an amendment in the Fiscal Year 2014 Consolidated Appropriations Act stating that Congress should not pass any legislation that authorizes spending cuts that would increase poverty in the United States. This bill was signed by President Obama on January 17, 2014.
- Co-Chair of the Congressional Out of Poverty Caucus: After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Congresswoman cofounded the Congressional Out-of-Poverty Caucus (COPC). The Caucus is focused on ending poverty by reducing unemployment, ensuring families have enough to eat, improving schools, and making higher education and quality healthcare accessible to everyone.
- Chair of the Democratic Whip Task Force on Poverty and Opportunity: Congresswoman Lee chairs the Whip’s Task Force on poverty and inequality, which focuses on finding new and innovative solutions to ending poverty in America and creating economic opportunities.
- Co-Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Poverty and the Economy Task Force: This Task Force has been tasked to identify the roots of poverty and to provide policy solutions that help break the cycle of poverty that leaves generations struggling to survive. This working group also works to identify and promote policy solutions that will address the staggering rates of unemployment within the African American community.
More on Poverty
Washington, D.C. – Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-Chairs Reps. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ) and Keith Ellison (D-MN), along with Progressive Caucus members Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY), Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL), and Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) released the following statements in support of workers striking today across the country for a living wage and collective bargaining rights.
(Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner on Thursday expressed his dissatisfaction with a chronically high jobless rate and complained of a "very sick idea" that the unemployed would "rather just sit around."
The top House Republican said there were a "record number of Americans stuck" and that government had an "obligation to help provide tools for them to use to bring them into the mainstream of American society."
The U.S. unemployment rate was 6.1 percent in August, down from 10 percent in October 2009.
Washington, DC – Congresswoman Barbara Lee released the following statement in response to newly reported U.S. poverty rates from the U.S. Census Bureau.
“It is encouraging to see the U.S. poverty rate slightly decline for the first time since 2006, from 15 percent to 14.5 percent. However, the fact remains that too many Americans are still struggling; more than 45 million Americans are still living in poverty.
Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA13), chair of the Democratic Whip Task Force on Poverty, Income Inequality, Opportunity, and 29 other Members of Congress sent a letter to President Obama applauding the administration’s efforts to address economic inequality and providing the administration with “a series of strategic agency directives, in the absence of coordinated legislative action by Congress to address poverty in America.”
Washington, DC – Today, Congresswoman Barbara Lee introduced legislation to take measurable action to lift Americans out of poverty and create opportunities into the middle class.
“My Pathways Out of Poverty Act starts with creating good paying jobs that will lift families out of poverty and into the middle class while strengthening our social safety net for those still struggling,” said Congresswoman Barbara Lee. “When we create good paying jobs and lift people into the middle class, we grow our economy and allow more jobs to be created.”
Rep. Paul Ryan is promoting the proposal he made last week to overhaul the nation's social safety net by giving states greater control over federal poverty programs.
"The federal government's approach has ended up maintaining poverty, managing poverty," the 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee said on NBC's "Meet the Press," The Washington Post reported. "In many ways, it has disincentivized people from going to work."
It was 4:25 p.m. and all Representative Tim Ryan had eaten so far were the few peanuts he foraged in a U.S. Capitol cloakroom.
His congressional salary is $174,000. But on Thursday, the six-term Ohio Democrat couldn’t afford lunch.
In a Congress thick with millionaires, Ryan and three other Democratic representatives are trying to live on the budget of a minimum wage worker this week in an effort to stir up attention to raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.
Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) unveiled his plan to defeat poverty on Thursday but many left-leaning advocates told Business Insider they were unimpressed with the measures, which they said would actually result in support being cut from needy families.
Ryan’s plan is broadly based on refocusing the distribution of social services funds from the federal level to the states. The plan would also impose work or job training requirements on aid recipients and, in the name of competition, require states to set up at least two service providers, according to reports.
Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) unveiled his plan to defeat poverty on Thursday but many left-leaning advocates told Business Insider they were unimpressed with the measures, which they said would actually result in support being cut from needy families.
Ryan’s plan is broadly based on refocusing the distribution of social services funds from the federal level to the states. The plan would also impose work or job training requirements on aid recipients and, in the name of competition, require states to set up at least two service providers, according to reports.
Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) unveiled his plan to defeat poverty on Thursday but many left-leaning advocates told Business Insider they were unimpressed with the measures, which they said would actually result in support being cut from needy families.
Ryan’s plan is broadly based on refocusing the distribution of social services funds from the federal level to the states. The plan would also impose work or job training requirements on aid recipients and, in the name of competition, require states to set up at least two service providers, according to reports.