I
104TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 919
To amend title 13, United States Code, to require that the Secretary of
Commerce produce and publish, at least every 2 years, current data
relating to the incidence of poverty in the United States.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY 13, 1995
Mr. SAWYER introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Government Reform and Oversight
A BILL
To amend title 13, United States Code, to require that
the Secretary of Commerce produce and publish, at least
every 2 years, current data relating to the incidence
of poverty in the United States.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Poverty Data Improve-
ment Act’’.
SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS.
The Congress finds that—
‘‘§ 181a. Data relating to poverty
‘‘(a) The Secretary, to the extent feasible, shall
produce and publish for each State, county, and local unit
of general purpose government for which data are com-
piled in the most recent census of population taken under
section 141(a), and for each school district, data relating
to the incidence of poverty. Such data may be produced
by means of sampling, estimation, or any other method
that the Secretary determines will produce current, com-
prehensive, and reliable data.
‘‘(b) Data under this section—
‘‘(1) shall include—
‘‘(A) for each school district, the number
of children age 5 to 17, inclusive, in families
below the poverty level; and
‘‘(B) for each State and county referred to
in subsection (a), the number of individuals age
65 or over below the poverty level; and
‘‘(2) shall be published—
‘‘(A) in 1996 in the case of each State,
county, and local unit of general purpose gov-
ernment referred to in subsection (a) and at
least every second year thereafter; and
‘‘(B) in 1998 in the case of each school
district and at least every second year there-
after.
‘‘(c)(1) If reliable data could not otherwise be pro-
duced, the Secretary may, for purposes of subsection
(b)(1)(A), aggregate school districts, but only to the extent
necessary to achieve reliability.
‘‘(2) Any data produced under this subsection shall
be appropriately identified and shall be accompanied by
a detailed explanation as to how and why aggregation was
used (including the measures taken to minimize any
such aggregation).
‘‘(d) If the Secretary is unable to produce and publish
the data required under this section for any State, county,
local unit of general purpose government, or school district
in any year specified in subsection (b)(2), a report shall
be submitted by the Secretary to the President of the Sen-
ate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, not
later than 90 days before the commencement of the follow-
ing year, enumerating each government or school district
excluded and giving the reasons for the exclusion.
‘‘(e) In carrying out this section, the Secretary shall
use the same criteria relating to poverty as were used in
compiling the then most recent census of population taken
under section 141(a) (subject to such periodic adjustments
as may be necessary to compensate for inflation and other
similar factors).’’.
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The table of sec-
tions for chapter 5 of title 13, United States Code, is
amended by inserting after the item relating to section
181 the following:
‘‘181a. Data relating to poverty.’’.
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