Urges Congress to pass legislation directing federal agency to establish accurate measure of poverty for determination of eligibility for federal programs.


 
 
 
     75th OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--2009 Regular Session
 
NOTE:  Matter within  { +  braces and plus signs + } in an
amended section is new. Matter within  { -  braces and minus
signs - } is existing law to be omitted. New sections are within
 { +  braces and plus signs + } .
 
 LC 3168
 
                           A-Engrossed
 
                        Senate Memorial 1
                 Ordered by the Senate April 10
           Including Senate Amendments dated April 10
 
Sponsored by Senator CARTER
 
 
                             SUMMARY
 
The following summary is not prepared by the sponsors of the
measure and is not a part of the body thereof subject to
consideration by the Legislative Assembly. It is an editor's
brief statement of the essential features of the measure.
 
  Urges Congress to pass legislation directing federal agency to
establish accurate measure of poverty for determination of
eligibility for federal programs. Urges Secretary of United
States Department of Agriculture to issue guidelines to implement
section 4141 of Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008.
 
                         SENATE MEMORIAL
To the President of the United States, the Senate and the House
  of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress
  assembled, and the Secretary of the United States Department of
  Agriculture:
  We, your memorialists, the Senate of the State of Oregon, in
legislative session assembled, respectfully represent as follows:
  Whereas the federal poverty guidelines published by the United
States Department of Health and Human Services rely upon a
measure of poverty formulated on the basis of 1963 household
consumption patterns and budgets, adjusted only by increases in
the cost of living; and
  Whereas the federal poverty guidelines do not account for the
enormous growth in the cost of energy and in the costs of
households with two working adults, including the costs of child
care and adequate nutrition, or for an eightfold increase in the
cost of housing and a thirteenfold increase in the cost of
medical care; and
  Whereas the federal poverty guidelines do not measure the
effectiveness of noncash public benefit programs, such as the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid, in
meeting the needs of low-income families; and
  Whereas the federal poverty guidelines provide the basis for
eligibility for Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program, formerly known as food stamps, the Special Supplemental
Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, the Commodity
Supplemental Food Program, the National School Lunch and School
Breakfast programs, the Weatherization Assistance Program, Head
Start, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, the State
Children's Health Insurance Program, Community Development Block
Grant funds awarded to municipalities, local governments and
neighborhoods and the Job Corps; and
  Whereas there is widespread agreement that the federal poverty
guidelines do not accurately measure economic deprivation in
these times; and
  Whereas federal agencies that administer public benefits
programs have developed alternative measures of well-being which
are regularly updated and improved, such as the United States
Department of Agriculture's measure of food insecurity, the
United States Department of Health and Human Services' measures
of child well-being and rates of uninsurance and the United
States Department of Housing and Urban Development's measure of
housing quality; and
  Whereas despite Oregon's high Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
Program participation rate of 79 percent of all eligible
households, the United States Department of Agriculture rates
food insecurity in Oregon higher than the national average, with
Oregon being the third hungriest state in the nation; and
  Whereas Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits are
based on a Thrifty Food Plan that meets the most basic
nutritional requirements but does not adequately account for the
higher costs of fresh fruits, vegetables and healthful food; and
  Whereas the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (P.L.
110-246) authorizes the Secretary of the United States Department
of Agriculture to carry out pilot projects to provide incentives
to encourage households participating in the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program to purchase fresh fruits, vegetables
and other healthful foods, but the secretary has not yet issued
guidance for the pilot projects; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Oregon:
  That the Congress of the United States of America is urged to
pass legislation directing an agency of the federal government to
establish a measure of poverty for use in the determination of
eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and
other federal anti-poverty programs that truly reflects economic
deprivation based on current costs for housing and basic needs,
current patterns of household consumption and the prevalence of
families with two parents working outside of the home; and be it
further
  Resolved, That the Secretary of the United States Department of
Agriculture is urged to issue guidelines for the implementation
of pilot projects under section 4141 of the Food, Conservation,
and Energy Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-246) and specifically to approve
projects that encourage households to purchase fresh fruits,
vegetables and other healthful foods; and be it further
  Resolved, That a copy of this memorial shall be sent to the
President of the United States, to the Senate Majority Leader, to
the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the chair of the
Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support of the
Committee on Ways and Means of the United States House of
Representatives, to the Secretary of the United States Department
of Agriculture and to each member of the Oregon Congressional
Delegation.
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