H.R. 2909 would amend title XI of the Social Security Act to provide for an improved method to measure poverty so as to enable a better assessment of the effects of programs under the Social Security Act.
Detailed Summary
Measuring American Poverty Act of 2009 - Amends part A of title XI of the Social Security Act to direct the Bureau of the Census (Census Bureau), in collaboration with the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), to calculate modern poverty thresholds and modern poverty rates for each calendar year.
Directs the Census Bureau and the BLS to choose: (1) the most appropriate distribution of consumption expenditures on food, clothing, and shelter, which may, if appropriate, exclude families receiving subsidies for food, clothing, or shelter; and (2) the reference family for the modern poverty measure.
Declares that the modern poverty threshold for a reference family shall be an amount equal to the average of 120% of the 33rd percentile of the distribution chosen, allowing for calculations to rely on a limited band converging on this percentile, during four or more of the most recent years for which data is available from the Consumer Expenditure Survey, a superior federal government source of data, or some combination of such sources. Prescribes requirements for determining modern poverty rates.
Directs the Census Bureau, in collaboration with the BLS, to contract with the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to develop and publish methods of: (1) calculating a decent living standard threshold; and (2) measuring the extent to which the income of families in the United States is sufficient to meet it.
Directs the Census Bureau, in collaboration with the BLS, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to contract with NAS to develop and publish a method of: (1) measuring the extent of medical care risk in the United States; and (2) calculating the number and percentage of individuals in the United States who lack adequate health insurance, leaving them at risk of being unable to afford needed treatment.
Directs the Census Bureau to contract with NAS to develop a set of recommendations for methods to implement annual modern poverty measurement at the state and local level and a timeframe for the implementation.
Status of the Legislation
Latest Major Action: 6/17/2009: Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, and in addition to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, 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.
Points in Favor
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Points Against
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Visitor Comments
John Iceland
June 23, 2009, 9:08am (report abuse)This bill is long overdue. We need a new poverty measure to replace the current outdated one. The proposed poverty measure will do a better job of measuring the resources people have at their disposal to meet their basic needs. It will also measure the effects of most government programs (such as the Earned Income Tax Credit) on reducing poverty, which our current measure does not do. In short, this bill offers us a much better tool to gauge the effectiveness of our government policies than what we now have available.
joanne samuel goldblum
June 30, 2009, 9:52am (report abuse)The poverty measure used today, developed by a government economist, was based on a 1955 Department of Agriculture study, which estimated that poor Americans spend about a third of their after-tax dollars on food. To determine the official poverty level, government officials simply multiplied food costs by three. Although the figures are updated annually for inflation, they haven’t changed for more than 40 years.
The problem with using this method, according to the National Center for Children and Poverty, is that food now comprises only one-seventh of an average family’s expenses, while the costs of other basic needs has grown disproportionately.
The result is that the current poverty threshold ($21,200 for a family of four) has little bearing on the cost of basic necessities. This casues significant burdens to families because the poverty threshold is used to determine eligibility for state and federal aid.
This bill is very important asnd needs to be passed.