Civil Rights Groups Call on Congress to Reduce Poverty

Following the release of the Census Bureau’s 2009 data, civil and human rights groups are calling on policymakers to take bold steps to reduce the number of people living in poverty in the United States. 

According to the Census Bureau:

• The poverty rate for African Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanic Americans increased in 2009.    
  
• One in four African Americans and one in four Hispanic Americans are now living below the federal poverty line.
  
• One in five children (20.7 percent) under the age of 18 are living below the federal poverty line. 

The Leadership Conference and its partners in the Half in Ten campaign — the Center for American Progress Action Fund and the Coalition on Human Needs — say that Congress should address poverty in the short-term by: 

• Extending the TANF Emergency Fund for another year; 
  
• Extending the reforms that were made to the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit in the economic recovery bill last year; and 
  
• Passing the Local Jobs for America Act, which authorizes $100 billion in funding over two years for preserving state and local government jobs, creating local government jobs, and creating jobs in the non-profit sector, is estimated to save or create more than one million jobs.

• More on the Half in Ten campaign.
  
• Half in Ten report on child poverty.
  
• State-by-state poverty data.