Sec. 31403. Establishment of the Federal Interagency Working Group on Reducing Poverty
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There is established within the Department of Health and Human Services, a Federal Interagency Working Group on Reducing Poverty, which shall be chaired by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and whose members shall be selected by their respective agency heads from the senior ranks of their agencies, which shall— develop, within 180 days of enactment, a National Strategy to reduce the number of persons living in poverty in America in half within 10 years of the release of the 2012 Census report on Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2011, that includes goals and objectives relating to— reducing in half the number of Americans living in poverty as reported by the 2012 Census report on Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2011; eliminating child poverty in America; eliminating extreme poverty in America; improving the effectiveness and outcomes of poverty-related programs by improving our understanding of the root causes of poverty, the social, economic, and the cultural contributors to persistent intergenerational poverty; improving the measure of poverty to include more indicators and measures that can meaningfully account for other aspects relating to the measure of poverty, such as regional differences in costs of living, the impact of rising income inequality, the impact of the persistent digital divide , expanding the understanding of poverty by distinguishing a standard that measures a level of freedom from deprivation versus a standard that measures a standard of economic adequacy provided by a living wage and access to a decent living standard, and the impact of poverty on other measures of economic stability and economic outcomes, such as educational attainment, rates of incarceration, lifetime earnings, access to health care, health care outcomes, access to housing, and including other measures as necessary to improve our understanding of why poverty persists in America; eliminating the disparate rates of poverty based on race, ethnicity, gender, age, or sexual orientation and identity, especially among children in those households so impacted; measuring effectiveness of poverty related programs on the basis of long-term outcomes, including the long-term savings and value of preventive practice and policy, and employing fact-based measures of programs to make improvements; improving the accessibility of benefit and social services programs, reducing the complexity and difficulty of enrollment, and improving the rates of enrollment in need based programs for all eligible recipients to maximize the impact of benefits and social services programs on reducing the impacts of poverty and improving economic outcomes; making more uniform eligibility requirements to improve the coordination of service delivery, reduce gaps in eligibility, and improve outcomes of programs addressing poverty in the Federal Government; reducing the negative impacts of asset limits for eligibility which impact Federal, State and local poverty programs on the effectiveness of programs where limited eligibility creates gaps in necessary service and benefit delivery, and restricts access to benefits as individuals and families attempt to transition off of assistance programs and which can prevent needy beneficiaries from improving long-term outcomes and achieving long-term economic independence from need-based programs; identifying Federal programs, including those related to disaster relief, hazard mitigation, extreme weather and climate change, and necessary reforms to better target resources towards disproportionately impacted socially vulnerable, low-income and disadvantaged communities may provide greater socio-economic benefits; improving the ability of community-based organizations to participate in the development, oversight and implementation of Federal poverty-related programs; improving access to good jobs with adequate wages and benefits by individuals living in poverty, low-income households, and the unemployed; expanding and stabilizing poor and low-income persons connection to work and access to critical job training and/or skills upgrade training that will lead to re-entry in the workforce; developing a comprehensive strategy to connect low-income young people and to re-connect currently disconnected youth to education, work, and their community; and shifting the focus of poverty and means-tested programs across the Federal Government beyond the relief of deprivation and instead setting goals, measures, and outcomes more focused on measuring the success of programs in supporting and improving how capable individuals and families can access educational and economic opportunities to successfully transition away from accessing public assistance and benefits and achieving long-term economic stability which will reduce long-term costs in domestic social needs programs, reduce long-term health care costs due to the improved health of formerly poverty stricken households, increase the number of taxpaying individuals which will increase revenue, and lower the enrollment and costs in need based benefits and services programs, thus improving the economy and reducing long-term deficits for Federal, State, and local governments; oversee, coordinate, and integrate all policies and activities of the Federal Government, in coordination and consultation with the Domestic Policy Council and the National Economic Council, across all agencies relating to reducing the number of individuals, families, and children living below the Federal poverty line, in extreme poverty or near poverty and increasing the number of households able to achieve long-term economic stability with assets sufficient to maintain a decent living standard without relying on public-support— economic, commercial, and programmatic policies that can effect or relieve the effects of poverty through job creation, and economic development targeted to low-income, minority, rural, urban and other populations who suffer disparate rates of poverty, among Federal agencies; and services and benefits including emergency programs, discretionary economic programs, and other policies and activities necessary to ensure that the Federal Government is able to mount effective responses to economic downturns and increases in the rates of poverty; ensure that all relevant Federal agencies comply with appropriate guidelines, policies, and directives from the Federal Interagency Working Group on Reducing Poverty and the Department of Health and Human Services and other Federal agencies with responsibilities relating to poverty reduction or improving economic stability and independence; ensure that Federal agencies, State governments and relevant congressional committees have access to, receive, and appropriately disseminate best practices in the administration of programs, have adequate resources to maximize the public awareness of programs, increase the reach of those programs, especially into historically disenfranchised communities, maximize enrollment for all eligible Americans, share relevant data, and issue relevant guidance in consultation with nongovernment organizations and policy experts in the field and State and local government officials who administer or direct policy for anti-poverty programs in increasing and maximizing the enrollment into and administration of programs and services designed to alleviate poverty; enact best practices for improved data collection, relevant to— reducing poverty; reducing the racial, ethnic, age, gender, and sexual orientation or sexual identity based disparities in the rates of poverty; adequately measuring the effectiveness, efficiency and impact of programs on the outcomes for individuals, families and communities who receive benefits and services; streamlining enrollment and eligibility for programs; improving long-term outcomes for individuals who are enrolled in service and benefit programs; reducing reliance on public programs; improving connections to work; improving economic stability; improving savings and investment, access to capital, increasing rates of entrepreneurship; improving our understanding of the impact of extreme weather and natural disasters on economically vulnerable communities and improving those communities’ resilience to and recovery from extreme weather and natural disasters; improving access to living wage employment; and improving access to employment-based benefits; and study the feasibility of and test different interagency, State and local, public/private models of cooperative service and benefit delivery by creating necessary exemptions, waivers and funding sources to allow improved cooperation and innovation in the development of programs, practices, policies and procedures that advance the goal of reducing poverty and increasing economic opportunity.
There shall be a Staff Director of National Poverty Policy, who shall be the head of the Federal Interagency Working Group on Reducing Poverty.