The Reducing Poverty and Economic Distress after ARRA: The Most Promising Approaches conference on January 15 brought together senior federal and state officials, leading policy experts, and researchers to propose and debate ideas for combating poverty and its harmful effects after the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) expires in 2010.
The conference focused on the depth of economic distress created by the 2008-09 recession – and the unanswered questions related to its long-term impact. The severity and breadth of the recession prompted the enactment of ARRA, a law that implemented major short-term increases in federal domestic spending and aggressive economic policies. But what’s next? Conference participants discussed the recession’s lessons, the performance of current programs, the ARRA experience, and steps that could be taken to reduce poverty and economic hardships in the short- and long-term.
Papers presented during the conference reflect on lessons learned from the recession, ARRA, and the changing economic, fiscal, and political landscapes to set out clear rationales for their recommendations and offer concrete policy ideas for Congress, the White House, and states.
The conference was jointly organized by Peter Edelman, Professor of Law at Georgetown University; Olivia Golden, Institute Fellow at the Urban Institute; and Harry Holzer, Professor of Public Policy at Georgetown University and Institute Fellow at the Urban Institute. Peter Edelman and Harry Holzer are also directors of the Georgetown Center on Poverty, Inequality and Public Policy, which provided generous funding the conference.
Podcasts and other materials are available on the conference page.
Perspective Brief
Reducing Poverty and Economic Distress after ARRA: Next Steps for Short-Term Recovery and Long-Term Economic Security
PETER B. EDELMAN, OLIVIA A. GOLDEN, and HARRY J. HOLZER
As unemployment in this recession holds near 10 percent and a growing number of Americans becomes impoverished, much work remains to reduce and respond to poverty and economic distress. In part, this work can build on the provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), better known as the stimulus package, which has moderated the effects of the recession but will soon phase out. This brief provides a framework and recommendations for next steps, directly related to the stimulus package and driven by other lessons learned from the recession and its aftermath.
ARRA research papers
Laboratories of Underfunding? State Financing for Antipoverty Efforts after the Recession
NICHOLAS JOHNSON
State governments help finance most U.S. antipoverty programs. The Great Recession documented the major flaw in this approach: the need for these programs is higher than ever when the ability of state governments to pay for them is at a low point. This analysis examines the factors that constrain states' abilities to maintain critical services and respond to increasing need during a recession. Financing strategies are outlined for the federal government to reduce poverty in the upcoming period of high unemployment, and mechanisms that could be enacted now to provide, automatically, the additional funds needed in the next recession.
Reducing Poverty and Economic Distress after ARRA: Potential Roles for Place-Conscious Strategies
MANUEL PASTOR and MARGERY AUSTIN TURNER
Growing up poor is a challenge—and growing up in a poor neighborhood is even more challenging. Because community distress undermines individual outcomes and trajectories, place-based strategies have played a role in anti-poverty efforts. The notion that we need to think of distressed neighborhoods in a broader metropolitan context, is relatively new. We argue that this approach—considering place in metropolitan context, seeing neighborhoods as a platform for mobility, and understanding the critical role of organizing—could move the needle on poverty. The new administration understands this framework, but applying it across agencies and programs requires conscious effort and commitment.
Creating a Safety Net That Works When the Economy Doesn't: The Role of the Food Stamp and TANF Programs
LADONNA PAVETTI and DOROTHY ROSENBAUM
The Food Stamp Program and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program have responded very differently to the unprecedented challenges that the current recession has posed to the nation's safety net. The Food Stamp Program, a federal entitlement program, has responded quickly to rising need: nationally, caseloads have increased by 4.6 million households since the beginning of the downturn. TANF, a fixed block grant provided directly to the states, has lagged behind: caseloads have increased by just 10 percent. For both programs, the recession has highlighted areas needing improvement to strengthen the safety net for this and future recessions.
Low-Income Children, Their Families and the Great Recession: What's Next in Policy?
LAWRENCE ABER and AJAY CHAUDRY
Children and youth vary in their developmental health due to differences in family economic security and exposure to toxic stress. The economic downturn has increased the challenges facing low-income children. The ARRA and the President's first budget made significant down-payments on investments in protecting and promoting the well-being of these children. But some of those investments are temporary and must be built into baselines going forward. Many other promising avenues for policy change could be implemented through reauthorization of PRWORA and ESEA. Further, a new era of experimentation in innovative program and policies is recommended for when the economy recovers.
Publicly Funded Jobs: An Essential Strategy for Reducing Poverty and Economic Distress Throughout the Business Cycle
CLIFFORD M. JOHNSON, AMY RYNELL, and MELISSA YOUNG
The need for direct public job creation efforts is greater today than at any time during the past seven decades. With a national unemployment rate that recently exceeded 10 percent, a new federal initiative that puts jobless individuals immediately to work must be a central element of any strategy for restoring economic growth and responding to pressing human needs in 2010 and beyond. Public service employment and transitional jobs programs offer tested and urgently needed models for combating the current recession and advancing longer-term workforce development goals.
Postsecondary Education and Training As We Know It Is Not Enough
ANTHONY P. CARNEVALE
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the American Graduation Initiative emphasize Pell grant funding and focusing on community colleges and sub-baccalaureate degrees. As a result, the administration’s postsecondary strategy shifts postsecondary resources to the least advantaged students and the two-year and less selective four-year institutions. This shift is part of a longer-term policy trend toward a reliance on postsecondary education as the primary element in domestic employment and social policy. As we proceed beyond the stimulus, the postsecondary emphasis needs to be leavened with more attention to employment policy and social policy goals, both for adults and working students.
The Great Recession, Unemployment Insurance and Poverty
WAYNE VROMAN
This paper reviews labor market developments in 2009 and developments in state unemployment insurance (UI) programs drawing upon statistical reports by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Office of Workforce Security of the U.S. Department of Labor. Next, the paper examines income data from the March 2009 Current Population Survey to summarize the implications of the 2008–09 recession for U.S. poverty rates. The unusually high unemployment of 2009 and the likely high unemployment of 2010 and later years point to near-term poverty rates much higher than the poverty rates of previous years.
Promising Antipoverty Strategies for Families
MARIA CANCIAN, DANIEL R. MEYER, and DEBORAH REED
A large percentage of poor children live with just one parent, usually their mother, and single-parent families are more vulnerable to economic downturns than are two-parent families. Living arrangements also affect the optimal design of policies related to income support and child support. In this paper, we review changes in family structure, the relationship between family structure and employment, and early evidence on differential impacts of the recession on families. We then focus on policies that are essential to reducing poverty in the context of the current work-based safety net.
Author Biographies
Latest Research
