On March 10, the U.S. Child Poverty Action Group and First Focus Campaign for Children sent a letter to Congress signed by over 160 organizations in support of the Child Poverty Reduction Act (S. 643/H.R. 1558), which would codify a national target to cut child poverty in half in the United States within a decade, as well as direct the National Academy of Sciences to monitor and analyze progress towards the target.
Excerpt from the letter:
Passing the Child Poverty Reduction Act is critical to sustaining and improving upon any progress made through the implementation of this plan through a legislative package in 2021. By codifying a national child poverty target and tasking the National Academy of Sciences to analyze and monitor progress towards this goal, this legislation will ensure that we continue to build the political will and have the research necessary to make progress on child poverty reduction beyond emergency relief efforts.
Other provisions of the Child Poverty Reduction Act include:
- Requiring the U.S. Census Bureau to develop an anchored Supplemental Poverty Measure to use to annually track progress on child poverty that includes data on children in the U.S. territories
- Directing the National Academy of Sciences to establish a Child Poverty Reduction Strategy Clearinghouse
- Mandating the National Academy of Sciences to update A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty within three years
- Directing the National Academy of Sciences to publish a new consensus study on policies to reduce long-term, intergenerational child poverty