Title: Measuring Real Income Growth Act of 2018
Policy area: Commerce

Summary:
Measuring Real Income Growth Act of 2018
This bill requires the Bureau of Economic Analysis to include estimates pertaining to various income groups in its gross domestic product analyses. Such analyses shall include estimates pertaining to each of the 10 deciles of income as discreet groups and the highest 1% of income as a group.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3440 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3440

    To require the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the Department of 
Commerce to provide estimates relating to the distribution of aggregate 
      economic growth across specific percentile groups of income.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 17, 2018

 Mr. Schumer (for himself, Mr. Heinrich, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Bennet, Mr. 
 Blumenthal, Mr. Booker, Mr. Brown, Mr. Coons, Ms. Cortez Masto, Mrs. 
  Feinstein, Mrs. Gillibrand, Ms. Harris, Ms. Hirono, Mr. Jones, Ms. 
   Klobuchar, Mr. Reed, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Van Hollen, Ms. Warren, Mr. 
 Whitehouse, Mr. Wyden, and Ms. Hassan) introduced the following bill; 
    which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, 
                      Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To require the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the Department of 
Commerce to provide estimates relating to the distribution of aggregate 
      economic growth across specific percentile groups of income.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Measuring Real Income Growth Act of 
2018''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Economic inequality in the United States has increased 
        dramatically during the 4 decades preceding the date of 
        enactment of this Act, with fewer households taking home a 
        larger share of the national income.
            (2) While growth was once distributed relatively evenly 
        across all individuals in the United States, research shows 
        that economic gains are increasingly enjoyed by the most 
        affluent. By contrast, the majority of individuals in the 
        United States have seen income and wage growth significantly 
        below what is suggested by national measures of output and 
        income.
            (3) The Bureau of Economic Analysis of the Department of 
        Commerce (referred to in this section as ``BEA'') reports 
        annual and quarterly estimates of gross domestic product 
        (referred to in this section as ``GDP'') in the United States. 
        These estimates are important measures of the overall size and 
        health of the economy of the United States but do not describe 
        how economic gains are distributed across the population of the 
        United States.
            (4) In a country of 325,000,000 individuals, top-line GDP 
        numbers do not capture the full range of household economic 
        experiences and may be misleading. The real GDP grew more than 
        3 percent annually between 2003 and 2005, but the average 
        income for \1/2\ of all individuals in the United States fell 
        during that period.
            (5) Disaggregating economic growth by income groups will 
        provide a more complete picture of how families in the United 
        States are faring across all rungs of the economic ladder and 
        whether economic growth is benefiting all individuals in the 
        United States.
            (6) Recent academic estimates of distributional growth show 
        how much of the economic gains during the 40 years preceding 
        the date of enactment of this Act have accrued to the top of 
        the income distribution. Between 1980 and 2014, the average 
        income of the top 1 percent of the income distribution grew 5 
        times as much as the average income of the bottom 90 percent of 
        the income distribution and more than 9 times as much as the 
        average income of the bottom \1/2\.
            (7) Official and timely estimates of distributional growth 
        from BEA, reported alongside top-line GDP numbers, would enable 
        Congress to better evaluate economic policies that impact every 
        individual in the United States.
            (8) Efforts to address slow wage growth, stagnant incomes, 
        and growing economic inequality require broadening the focus 
        beyond GDP and obtaining metrics that better correspond to the 
        experiences of all families in the United States.

SEC. 3. ESTIMATES OF AGGREGATE ECONOMIC GROWTH ACROSS INCOME GROUPS.

    (a) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) Bureau.--The term ``Bureau'' means the Bureau of 
        Economic Analysis of the Department of Commerce.
            (2) Gross domestic product analysis.--The term ``gross 
        domestic product analysis''--
                    (A) means a quarterly or annual analysis conducted 
                by the Bureau with respect to the gross domestic 
                product of the United States; and
                    (B) includes a revision prepared by the Bureau of 
                an analysis described in subparagraph (A).
            (3) Recent estimate.--The term ``recent estimate'' means 
        the most recent estimate described in subsection (b) that is 
        available on the date on which the gross domestic product 
        analysis with which the estimate is to be included is 
        conducted.
    (b) Inclusion in Reports.--Beginning in 2020, in each gross 
domestic product analysis conducted by the Bureau, the Bureau shall 
include a recent estimate of, with respect to specific percentile 
groups of income, the total amount that was added to the economy of the 
United States during the period to which the recent estimate pertains, 
including in--
            (1) each of the 10 deciles of income; and
            (2) the highest 1 percent of income.
    (c) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to the Secretary of Commerce such sums as are necessary to 
carry out this section.
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