Bonnie Watson Coleman: “I thank the gentlewoman for yielding and for organizing, coordinating, this opportunity for this discussion. I thank the…”

“I thank the gentlewoman for yielding and for organizing, coordinating, this opportunity for this discussion. I thank the gentlewoman because she is the most vibrant and is the strongest voice for those who are the most vulnerable in our communities across this Nation. Mr. Speaker, poverty isn't just a problem in America. It is a crisis. We are not doing enough about it. In September, the Census Bureau released the newest data on the number of Americans living below the poverty line. The report further confirms what my colleagues and I have been trying to get the majority in this body to acknowledge, and that is that poverty may be one of the greatest challenges facing our Nation right now. The median household income stayed the same. The poverty rate remained the same as well. Women and minorities did worse than the average. Overall, nearly 15 percent of American families--almost 47 million people--earn less than $24,000 a year. The fact that terrifies me the most is that the way we calculate the poverty rate has several inherent flaws, and when you dive deeper into the numbers on this issue, you come up with a picture of an America that is deeply broken. The poverty rate is just a snapshot of a single year. Last year, for example, 22 percent of all children lived in families that fell below the poverty line, something we should be embarrassed by in not devoting more resources to fixing.…”