United States Booker Tender

U.S. Senator Cory Booker D-NJ and U.S. House Assistant Democratic Leader Congressman James E. Clyburn SC today introduced a sweeping anti-poverty bill to better target federal grant dollars to high-poverty urban rural and tribal communities. The bill An Act Targeting Resources into Communities in Need expands the successful 10-20-30 anti-poverty formula to include a significantly larger group of struggling communities and broader universe of federal accounts.While genius is spread equally across zip codes opportunity is not Senator Booker said. This bill more strategically targets federal resources to where they are needed most ensuring that families and communities long left behind are given a fair shot. In doing so we can move to a smarter more responsive government.For far too long persistent poverty communities have suffered from neglect and indifference leading to a lack of access to quality schools affordable quality health care and adequate job opportunities said Majority Whip Clyburn. This legislation seeks to right this wrong by targeting much needed federal investments to areas that need them the most.The quality of life in our urban counterparts is directly linked to the health and vitality of rural America ...the majority of our food fiber and fuel are produced in these areas ...this legislation continues to strengthen that link Sam Wade CEO of the National Rural Water Association said. We would also like to commend our partners at Rural Development and we believe they are uniquely qualified and experienced to assist these communities many of which unfortunately lack the human capacity and financial resources to move ahead without some assistance. We at NRWA stand ready and able to work with Congress and our partners at Rural Development to further the health and prosperity in these rural communities. In the United States poverty is not equally distributed. It clusters in specific regions states towns and even neighborhoods Minor Sinclair Director of Oxfam Americas U.S. Domestic Program said. At Oxfam weve seen states in the Gulf Coast working to pull people out of poverty but struggling against formidable barriers including a legacy of racism with roots in slavery exacerbated incarceration rates and elevated exposure to climate hazards such as hurricanes. The Clyburn-Booker bill is a critical step to ending the injustice of poverty. This bill would target resources in the communities that need it most helping to mitigate the historical social and environmental factors that inhibit communities abilities to thrive.The Housing Assistance Council has almost 50 years of experience working in persistently poor rural communities across the country David Lipsetz CEO of the Housing Assistance Council said. We know how challenging it is to direct federal funds to these high-need places. Without increased federal investment in capacity on the ground high-poverty communities will continue to fall behind. We applaud Senator Booker and Congressman Clyburn for addressing this challenge with An Act Targeting Resources to Communities in Need which will direct important federal funding and programs - like those of USDAs Rural Development and the CDFI Fund - to the nations most persistently poor communities.In 2017 over 12.8 million children in America lived below the official poverty level - 25094 for a family of four and nearly half lived in extreme poverty at below half the poverty level MaryLee Allen Director of Policy at the Childrens Defense Fund said. More than one in ten children spend at least half their childhoods in poverty and the longer a child is poor the greater their risk of becoming a poor adult. An Act Targeting Resources to Communities in Need is an important step toward badly-needed investment in the persistently poor areas so many of our most vulnerable children and families call home.Confronting and eradicating areas of persistent poverty will address educational imbalances health disparities and economic inequities Lou Tisler Executive Director of National NeighborWorks Association said. National NeighborWorks Association supports instituting the 10-20-30 plan more broadly as proposed by the Clyburn-Booker Act which will prioritize and provide necessary resources while creating impactful leverage and enduring strength in neighborhoods and communities across the country as NeighborWorks organizations do every day.The 10-20-30 formula requires that a minimum of ten percent of federal funds of a particular federal program go to communities with persistent poverty defined as a county where the poverty level has been 20 percent or higher over the past thirty years. This formula was successfully applied to three accounts in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 15 accounts in the omnibus appropriations law of 2017 and 14 accounts in the omnibus appropriations law for 2018. This new bill expands this formula so that it applies to a larger universe of federal programs ensuring that more high poverty communities are reached.In order to ensure federal investment reaches all high-need communities including pockets of deep poverty and those communities experiencing more recent economic downturns preventing them from being defined as persistent the bill would also require certain federal agencies and programs target resources to census tracts with poverty rates currently exceeding 20 percent.