H.Res. 1319

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1319 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 1319

Ending child poverty.

_______________________________________________________________________

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

May 21, 2026

Ms. Tlaib (for herself, Ms. Jacobs, Ms. Norton, Mrs. McIver, Ms. Wilson 
of Florida, Ms. Morrison, Ms. Moore of Wisconsin, Ms. Simon, and Ms. 
Jayapal) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

_______________________________________________________________________

RESOLUTION

Ending child poverty.

Whereas the United States child poverty rate is more than double that of other 
wealthy nations;
Whereas there were over 9,744,000 children living in poverty in the United 
States in 2024, a 154-percent increase from 2021 when there were 
3,829,000 children living in poverty;
Whereas Federal investments in child well-being, such as the expanded Child Tax 
Credit were largely responsible for the record decline in child poverty 
in 2021;
Whereas the expiration of Federal support pushed 4,000,000 children back into 
poverty in January 2022, and caused a 12-percent increase in food 
insecurity;
Whereas the share of total Federal spending on children declined for the fourth 
straight year in 2025 to 8.57 percent;
Whereas the share of total Federal spending on babies and toddlers in 2025 was a 
mere 1.59 percent;
Whereas 3.3 percent of children in the United States were living in deep poverty 
in 2024, nearly double the rate in 2021, in households with incomes of 
less than $19,000 a year for a family of 4 with 2 children;
Whereas Black, Hispanic, Asian, and American Indian and Alaska Native children 
experience poverty at a rate roughly 3 times that of White, non-Hispanic 
children;
Whereas the United States must continue to work to ensure that all eligible 
families are able to receive the financial assistance that they are 
owed, including nonfiler families, immigrant families, and families in 
Puerto Rico;
Whereas the Federal poverty thresholds underestimate poverty in the United 
States, and families with children with incomes well above Federal 
poverty thresholds continue to experience material hardship and the 
inability to afford basic needs;
Whereas young children have the highest rates of poverty, experiencing 
significant hardship while undergoing critical stages of brain 
development;
Whereas the United States continues to have a significantly higher rate of child 
poverty compared to other wealthy nations because the Nation fails to 
sufficiently invest in children;
Whereas children in immigrant families experience higher rates of poverty than 
children in nonimmigrant families because they face barriers to 
accessing antipoverty programs, and increasing both their eligibility 
and access to benefits would have a significant impact in reducing child 
poverty;
Whereas children living in Puerto Rico and the other United States territories 
experience poverty at higher rates than children in the 50 States and 
District of Columbia because they lack equal access to Federal benefits 
as part of a long history of racism and discrimination against people 
living in the territories;
Whereas poverty is linked to material hardship, resulting in children in poverty 
experiencing hunger and food insecurity, a lack of access to health 
care, unsafe and unstable shelter, and a lack of other basic needs which 
lead to children in poverty often having worse physical and mental 
health, educational, and other outcomes than their wealthier peers;
Whereas children living in poverty and Black and Hispanic children experience 
higher rates of asthma and lead poisoning compared to their peers due to 
living in substandard housing and neighborhood conditions that are a 
product of an environmental legacy of structural racism;
Whereas the National Academy of Sciences finds that when households with 
children receive cash transfers, parents and caretakers spend it on 
resources that support their children's healthy development, leading to 
improved physical and behavioral health and educational outcomes for 
their children and leading these children to earn more as adults;
Whereas, as the United States high rate of child poverty has negative 
implications for not only the outcomes of individual children living in 
poverty, but also for society as a whole, costing the United States 
upward of $1,000,000,000,000 a year due to lost economic output, 
increased health care costs, and more;
Whereas too often families with children unjustly come in contact with the child 
welfare system due to a lack of sufficient economic supports;
Whereas youth who age out of the foster care system experience higher levels of 
poverty, criminal justice involvement, and homelessness than their 
peers;
Whereas households with children with disabilities and special health care needs 
are more prone to economic hardship, as the annual cost of caring for a 
child with disabilities can be tens of thousands of dollars;
Whereas poverty is inextricably linked to homelessness, with over 1,370,000 
public school students experiencing homelessness in the 2022-2023 school 
year, a 14-percent increase from the pervious school year, yet these 
issues are often addressed in separate policy silos;
Whereas the United States invests fewer public dollars in early childhood 
education and care than almost all other wealthy democracies;
Whereas social spending on children has a bigger return on investment for 
society than social spending for other ages yet the United States 
continues to underinvest in children; and
Whereas only 21 out of 100 families with children in poverty receive benefits 
through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, only 
1 in 4 eligible households receive Federal rental assistance, Head Start 
fails to serve most children who are eligible, and more than 6,000,000 
households with children face food insecurity even as recent changes 
will cause millions to lose Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program 
(SNAP) benefits: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) desires that no child should experience poverty in the 
United States and supports the establishment of a national 
child poverty reduction target to build the political will 
needed to make the investments and policy changes that will end 
child poverty;
(2) recognizes that every child deserves access to 
nutritious meals, safe and stable housing, appropriate 
pediatric health care, clean air and drinking water, and other 
necessities, and children should not be denied resources 
because of the color of their skin, their household's economic 
status or ZIP Code, their health care status, their gender 
identity and sexual orientation, or their immigration status;
(3) supports making permanent investments on the scale of 
those made in 2021 to the Child Tax Credit, which significantly 
reduced child poverty and narrowed the poverty gap for Black, 
Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaska Native children;
(4) recognizes that the United States underinvests in 
children and support making additional Federal investments for 
children, increasing the share of Federal spending on children, 
and addressing the budgetary structural disadvantages facing 
children's programs;
(5) supports access for all children to high-quality, 
affordable, and accessible learning opportunities, including 
mixed delivery systems, within child care, pre-K, Head Start, 
and Early Head Start in order to benefit children, their 
families, the early childhood workforce, and the economy;
(6) guarantees accessible, diverse, safe, high-quality, 
equitable public education and accessible education 
infrastructure from pre-K-12 for all children, and protects and 
expands public resources for students with disabilities; and
(7) encourages States, territories, and localities to enact 
policies that follow the direction provided by this resolution.
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