On the recordMarch 5, 2018
I thank the gentleman from the Keystone State for hosting tonight's Special Order hour. He has demonstrated great leadership during this time, and the issues that we are tackling during these Special Order hours are very important to this country as we move forward. As has been stated today, it has been 50 years since the Kerner report warned us that the Nation was headed into a separate and unequal future. The Kerner report was supposed to be a wake-up call for the United States to break the cycle that kept African-Americans in poverty. It called for government to invest in job creation programs, to expand public housing, and to guarantee minimum family incomes. The Kerner report understood that such actions were necessary for the United States to confront its legacy of race and inequality. Unfortunately, 50 years later, the same problems persist. The rate of child poverty in the United States today is greater than it was in 1968. The percent of Americans who live in the depths of poverty has grown as well. Welfare reform has failed. African-American unemployment is still nearly double the rate of our White counterparts. Labor unions, once a great equalizer for workers, have shrunk, and inequality has grown. Rich people in the United States are healthier than poor people. They live longer. They go to better schools, get better jobs, and generate more wealth. They are also more likely to be White than to be Black.…
