The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

September 16, 2010 - Posted by Tyler Lewis

According to the Census Bureau:

• The poverty rate for African Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanic Americans increased in 2009.    
• One in four African Americans and one in four Hispanic Americans are now living below the federal poverty line.
• One in five children (20.7 percent) under the age of 18 are living below the federal poverty line. 

The Leadership Conference and its partners in the Half in Ten campaign — the Center for American Progress Action Fund and the Coalition on Human Needs — say that Congress should address poverty in the short-term by: 

• Extending the TANF Emergency Fund for another year; 
• Extending the reforms that were made to the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit in the economic recovery bill last year; and 
• Passing the Local Jobs for America Act, which authorizes $100 billion in funding over two years for preserving state and local government jobs, creating local government jobs, and creating jobs in the non-profit sector, is estimated to save or create more than one million jobs.

• More on the Half in Ten campaign.
• Half in Ten report on child poverty.
• State-by-state poverty data.

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