Human Needs Report Article

The Human Needs Report is the Coalition on Human Needs' newsletter on national policy issues affecting low-income and vulnerable populations. It is published every other week while Congress is in session.

CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS PLAY KEY ROLE

The majority party in Congress has an enormously powerful tool: hearings.  They serve a wide range of purposes: supply information as Congress reconsiders reauthorizing existing programs; provide oversight as agencies implement existing laws; raise new important issues that portend future action; highlight compelling human-interest stories that validate the need for program funding; investigate misconduct in the executive branch; shed light on the misuse of government funds; and debate the conduct of war.   The 110th Congress has indicated that it intends to use the platform hearings provide aggressively to do all of the above. 

Economic and Societal Costs of Poverty

The House Committee on Ways and Means held a hearing on January 24 at which witnesses presented research findings that people living in poverty are more subject to poor health and more likely to engage in criminal activity compared to others, and that these outcomes result in reduced economic productivity.  This is one of several hearings exploring current economic conditions House Ways and Means has scheduled. 

At the hearing, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) testified about their new study, Poverty in America:  Economic Research Shows Adverse Impacts on Health Status and Other Social Conditions as well as the Economic Growth Rate (www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-344).  GAO’s Sigurd Nelson cited research connecting poorer health, crime, and low educational attainment, and that all of these are associated with reduced economic growth.

Harry Holzer, Professor of Public Policy at Georgetown University, testified about a new study he co-authored for the Center for American Progress, The Economic Costs of Poverty in the United States:  Subsequent Effects of Children Growing Up Poor (http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/01/pdf/poverty_report.pdf).  The report found that the costs of children growing up poor to the U.S. economy are approximately $500 billion a year, or nearly 4 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).  These costs occur because of reduced productivity, higher costs of crime, and increased health costs.  The report suggests that, while programs to reduce poverty have costs, doing nothing to alleviate poverty is expensive.  Investing taxpayer dollars to lift children out of poverty is the right thing to do for many reasons, and economic growth is one of them. 

Some of the Republican Committee members were intent on asserting the importance of marriage and other behavior choices in preventing poverty.  Ron Haskins, Co-Director of the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution, and formerly chief staff of the Human Resources Subcommittee under earlier Republican leadership, agreed on the importance of marriage and behavior, and felt that incentives for marriage could be improved by a several billion dollar expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit.  Harry Holzer and David Jones, CEO of the Community Service Society of New York, both talked about helping low-income and minority men to secure jobs, which, in addition to its obvious anti-poverty benefits might also result in more marriage and child support.

Jane Knitzer, Director of the National Center for Children in Poverty, emphasized the importance of investing in early childhood education, quality child care, and income supports for low-income families. 

Nutrition Programs

In anticipation of reauthorization of the Farm Bill later this year, the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee held a hearing this week on the nutrition title in the bill.  Parameters for three important nutrition programs are established in the Farm Bill: the Food Stamp Program, the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, and the Emergency Food Assistance Program. 

Much of the testimony focused on the largest of the programs, Food Stamps.  In 2004, Food Stamps were credited with lifting 2.4 million people above the poverty line.  Half of Food Stamp participants are in the program for 8 months or less.  Although an entitlement, only 50 percent of all households and 30 percent of elderly who are eligible participate in the program.  One barrier to participation is the application process.  According to testimony by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, it takes an average of 5 hours and two and one-half visits at a Food Stamp office to complete the application process.  Further, for a growing number of participants who work, the inability to get time off to go to an agency to requalify, or the loss of wages when they must take time off without pay, are disincentives they often cannot overcome.

Many witnesses spoke of the need to raise the benefit, which now averages one dollar per meal.  Witnesses also encouraged the committee to raise the asset limit of $2000, which was set 25 years ago.  Had the limit been adjusted for inflation it would now be $4000.  Homeless families saving for rent and a security deposit, for example, have a difficult time adhering to the asset limit and remaining eligible for the program.

Witnesses reported that the error rate in the Food Stamp program has decreased significantly in the last several years.  Of the remaining errors, two-thirds are due to agency staff incorrectly entering data.  Fraud within the system has also declined drastically since the use of electronic benefit cards.

Other programs highlighted at the hearing for their importance were the disaster Food Stamp Program in the aftermath of the Gulf Coast hurricanes in 2005, the Food Distribution on Indian Reservations Program on reservations, and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program.