IV 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 763 
Expressing support for the development of a national strategic plan to end 
deep poverty. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
DECEMBER 12, 2019 
Mr. SERRANO (for himself, Mr. NADLER, Ms. NORTON, Mr. CARSON of Indi-
ana, and Mr. EVANS) submitted the following resolution; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Oversight and Reform 
RESOLUTION 
Expressing support for the development of a national 
strategic plan to end deep poverty. 
Whereas despite the United States being a Nation of great 
wealth, 17,300,000 people still lived in deep poverty in 
2018; 
Whereas the definition of deep poverty is having an income 
below half the Federal poverty line (in 2018 that equated 
to $6,392 or less for a single person; $12,850 or less for 
a family of 4); 
Whereas deep poverty is caused in large part by a continued 
history of structural inequalities that deepen economic 
hardship and limit opportunity; 
Whereas Native Americans, African Americans, and Latinos 
(and Latinas) disproportionately experience deep poverty 
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in the United States (and high rates of deep poverty are 
also found among people with disabilities, women (par-
ticularly women-headed households), children, young 
adults, and people experiencing homelessness); 
Whereas poverty is dehumanizing and physically and psycho-
logically harmful to children and adults, with negative ef-
fects that accumulate over time; 
Whereas children and older adults are particularly vulnerable 
to experiencing deep poverty; 
Whereas, in 2017, over 30 percent of all children in the 
United States (5,900,000) and 8.9 percent of those age 
65 and older (1,700,000) live in families experiencing 
deep poverty; 
Whereas exiting deep poverty is especially difficult because of 
extreme material hardship, social exclusion, and cumu-
lative disadvantage, all of which compromise health and 
well-being, reduce opportunities and life chances, and 
heighten the likelihood of experiencing poverty that is ex-
treme and chronic; 
Whereas people living in poverty are widely stereotyped as 
not working, when in fact many low-income people work 
but do not earn enough to move out of poverty; 
Whereas negative attitudes and beliefs about low-income peo-
ple and communities result in stigma, decreased empathy, 
social and cognitive distancing from people experiencing 
poverty, and lower support for poverty alleviation pro-
grams and policies; 
Whereas despite significant hardship, individuals living in 
deep poverty often express optimism and hope for the fu-
ture, a creative ingenuity for making ends meet, a com-
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mitment to family and community, a strong work ethic, 
and pride in their work; and 
Whereas because deep poverty is the result of intersecting 
systemic factors (for example, lack of access to housing, 
health care, food, and living wages), its solution will ne-
cessitate coordinated efforts to change systems through 
programs that have not been designed to work in concert 
with each other: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) recognizes that, even if we are not person-
ally experiencing deep poverty, we are all harmed by 
poverty and economic inequality; 
(2) believes that economic inequality affects 
health outcomes of those with limited economic re-
sources by increasing chronic diseases, obesity, drug 
and alcohol problems that ultimately shorten life 
expectancies, and that there are higher rates of 
these health issues across all income groups in coun-
tries with higher rates of income inequality; 
(3) understands that there is no single, simple 
solution to the problem of deep poverty because 
some groups are more vulnerable to living in deep 
poverty than others; 
(4) acknowledges that while social science has 
contributed to the understanding of poverty in gen-
eral, there are unique contributions that psycholo-
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