It is also a tool to improve racial equity.

I am particularly grateful for the work Vicki did with me and other Members of Congress to help incarcerated parents and non-custodial parents.

Today's child support program directs the vast majority of collections to meet the immediate needs of children.

It recognizes that the primary reason for non-payment of child support is inability to pay, not lack of love.

For children living in poverty, child support nearly doubles their household income.

The more effective approaches to dealing with trauma and how it impacts, would that be a beneficial activity for us to put more emphasis on to help reduce poverty?

Every day we delay action, poverty poisons the future for millions of our children and for our nation.

This inability to govern has prevented us from doing our work for three weeks, despite an urgent need to keep our government operating, address the child care cliff, and stand by our allies.

I believe that child poverty is a moral emergency. It is inexcusable that children in the wealthiest nation in the world are growing up in poverty.

So the more comprehensive our approaches are, the more likely we are to see positive results.

For years, structural racism has led to much higher rates of child poverty among children of color, especially Black children.