Bonamici Remarks at Advancement of Bipartisan Update to Anti-Poverty Program

WASHINGTON, DC [3/16/22] – Today Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), Chair of the Education and Labor Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Human Services, delivered the following remarks at a committee markup to advance her bipartisan update to the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) program.

Video of Bonamici's remarks can be viewed here.

"In 1964, Congress first established the Community Action Program to support locally driven anti-poverty efforts. Today, community action agencies, or CAAs, form a network of more than 1,000 organizations with a dedicated mission of helping individuals and families find their way out of poverty," Bonamici said in her remarks. "These agencies provide services and programs that meet the unique needs of local communities, and help low-income individuals and families achieve economic stability, secure meaningful employment and adequate education, gain and improve job-related skills, obtain housing, and participate in the community. Unfortunately, CSBG has not been reauthorized since 1998—the year Google was founded and John Glenn flew the Discovery space shuttle mission. And I might say that Titanic was a box office hit. That was a long time ago. We are long past due for Congress to pass a comprehensive reauthorization of this significant law.

"I am very proud of the productive collaboration with Congressman Thompson, my partner on our committee in leading the Community Services Block Grant Modernization Act of 2022. And I sincerely thank Representatives DeSaulnier, Stefanik, and Comer for joining us in leading this effort. Our bill continues the long tradition of broad bipartisan support for this program. I also want to acknowledge Congresswoman Bettie McCollum, who led early iterations of this proposal in prior Congresses and has joined us this session to build on that foundational work with more than 80 bipartisan cosponsors.

"Our bill will reauthorize CSBG for 10 years—the longest period in its history—and also make overdue improvements to the program. This includes strengthening funding for Community Action Agencies and raising the CSBG program's income eligibility threshold to expand access to their services and to update. The bill also promotes innovation in the CAA network through a federally administered Community Action Innovations Program. Lastly, I want to highlight a provision championed by Mr. Thompson to create Broadband Navigator projects so that CAAs can assist their clients in accessing internet services and connected devices that are necessary for learning, finding employment, and other basic activities of everyday life."

The CSBG program supports more than 1,000 Community Action Agencies (CAAs), which have been providing holistic assistance to low-income individuals communities across the country for more than 50 years. According to the most recent available data, in FY2019 CAAs served 9,623,651 people with low incomes who were living in 4,870,660 families across the U.S.

The Community Services Block Grant Modernization Act of 2021 will reauthorize this critical program for another decade and make overdue updates to further reduce poverty. Updates to the CSBG program include:

• Reauthorizing the CSBG Act for 10 years at an increased annual level of $1 billion for first five years
• Permanently raising income eligibility to 200 percent of the poverty line, as temporarily provided in the CARES Act
• Promoting innovation in the Community Action network through a federally administered Community Action Innovations Program, and requiring federal and state training and technical assistance to support developing and promoting evidence-based approaches to reducing poverty

A fact sheet with more details about the CSBG Modernization Act can be found here. A summary can be found here.

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