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[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 102 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. CON. RES. 102

  Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States has a moral 
    responsibility to meet the needs of those persons, groups, and 
   communities that are impoverished, disadvantaged, or otherwise in 
                                poverty.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 21, 2009

 Ms. Lee of California (for herself, Mr. Conyers, Mr. Butterfield, Mr. 
Honda, Mr. Baca, Mr. McDermott, Ms. Velazquez, Mr. Hinchey, Mr. Olver, 
Mr. Grijalva, Ms. Corrine Brown of Florida, Mr. Gonzalez, Mr. Bishop of 
   Georgia, Mr. Ellison, Ms. Norton, Mr. Sires, Mr. Abercrombie, Mr. 
 Johnson of Georgia, Mr. Rush, Ms. Woolsey, Mr. Al Green of Texas, Mr. 
    Kucinich, Mr. McGovern, and Mr. Schiff) submitted the following 
concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight 
                         and Government Reform

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

 
  Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States has a moral 
    responsibility to meet the needs of those persons, groups, and 
   communities that are impoverished, disadvantaged, or otherwise in 
                                poverty.

Whereas poverty can be seen as a deep, structural problem that implicates our 
        value system and our educational and economic institutions;
Whereas poverty may be defined as the lack of basic necessities of life such as 
        food, shelter, clothing, health care, education, security, and 
        opportunity;
Whereas policy initiatives addressing poverty have not kept pace with the 
        growing needs of millions of Americans;
Whereas many experts believe that the lack of an equitable distribution of 
        housing choices across the country leads to isolation and concentrated 
        poverty;
Whereas there were 37,300,000 people living in poverty in 2007;
Whereas experts estimate that between 7,000,000 to 10,000,000 people in the 
        United States will fall below the Federal poverty line as a result of 
        the current recession;
Whereas even during a period of economic growth between 2001 and 2007, an 
        additional 4,000,000 people in the United States fell into poverty;
Whereas in 2007, 13,300,000 children under the age of 18 lived in poverty;
Whereas in 2007, 15,600,000 persons lived in extreme poverty, defined as people 
        with incomes lower than one-half of the established Federal poverty 
        guideline;
Whereas 45,700,000 Americans were living without health insurance in 2007; and
Whereas in 2009, a family of 4 was considered poor under the United States 
        Census Bureau's official measure if the family's income was below 
        $21,834: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That it is the sense of Congress that the United States should set a 
national goal of cutting poverty in half over the next 10 years.
                                 <all>
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