I 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 654 
To require poverty impact statements for certain legislation. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 22, 2009 
Ms. LEE of California introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Rules, and in addition to the Committee on the Budget, 
for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case 
for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the 
committee concerned 
A BILL 
To require poverty impact statements for certain legislation. 
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 Impact Trig-
ger Act of 2009’’. 
SEC. 2. CERTAIN POVERTY IMPACT LEGISLATION SUBJECT 
TO POINT OF ORDER. 
Rule XXI of the Rules of the House of Representa-
tives is amended by adding at the end the following new 
clause: 
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‘‘ Certain legislation reported by committees 
‘‘11. It shall not be in order to consider a bill or joint 
resolution of a public nature authorizing an appropriation 
of $10,000,000 or more, unless— 
‘‘(a) the committee report accompanying the bill 
or joint resolution includes a CBO Poverty Index Di-
vision impact statement; or 
‘‘(b) the chair of the committee reporting the 
bill or joint resolution submits such statement to be 
published in the Congressional Record before consid-
eration of the bill or joint resolution.’’. 
SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE POVERTY IM-
PACT DIVISION. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 202 of the Congressional 
Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 602) is amended by adding 
at the end the following new subsection: 
‘‘(h) CBO POVERTY IMPACT DIVISION.— 
‘‘(1) CREATION.—There is established within 
the Office the CBO Poverty Impact Division (herein-
after in this subsection referred to as the ‘Division’). 
‘‘(2) DUTIES AND FUNCTIONS.— 
‘‘(A) PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION OF 
IMPACT STATEMENT.—When a chair of a com-
mittee of the House of Representatives submits 
a written request to the Division to prepare and 
submit to the committee a CBO Poverty Index 
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services, including health care, housing, 
and education. 
‘‘(C) POVERTY THRESHOLD DEFINED.—In 
this subsection, the term ‘poverty threshold’ 
means an income level below 200 percent of the 
poverty line (as defined in section 673(2) of the 
Community Services Block Grant Act).’’. 
SEC. 4. EXERCISE OF RULEMAKING POWERS. 
Section 2 of this Act is enacted by the House of Rep-
resentatives— 
(1) as an exercise of the rulemaking power of 
the House of Representatives and as such it shall be 
considered as part of the rules of the House of Rep-
resentatives and such rules shall supersede other 
rules only to the extent that they are inconsistent 
therewith; and 
(2) with the full recognition of the constitu-
tional right of the House of Representatives to 
change such rules at any time, in the same manner, 
and to the same extent as in the case of any other 
rule of the House of Representatives. 
SEC. 5. EFFECTIVE DATE. 
The amendments made by this Act shall apply to any 
bill or joint resolution reported by a committee of the 
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House of Representatives after the 90-day period begin-
ning on the date of enactment of this Act. 
Æ 
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