As you may know, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is seeking comments on 14 questions posed by the Interagency Technical Working Group on Evaluating Alternative Measures of Poverty. These questions cover issues like how to measure material hardship, availability of data, whether health insurance should be included in a poverty measurement, whether the value of education should be taken into account, what income sources should be included and what expenses should be subtracted, and how to go about developing a “consumption resource measure” – purchases or expenses, including vehicles and housing.
The anti-poverty community is concerned that the Trump administration may develop measurements of poverty that further underestimate levels of need. The COVID-19 crisis poses challenges for academics, anti-poverty organizations, and other members of the public to comment by the current 11:59pm, April 14 deadline (unless OMB grants our numerous extension requests—thank you to everyone who signed the extension letter!).
Ways to engage
Use the Coalition on Human Needs portal to submit a short comment and share with your networks.
Draft a comment from your organization. You can use this comment from researchers at Columbia University and this draft comment from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) as starting points. Additional organizations may share templates or draft comments as well. Submit your comment at https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=OMB-2019-0007-0001.
– From the National Women’s Law Center
Every comment matters. The administration is required to respond to every public comment, delaying the implementation of these catastrophic changes, so long as they are not identical. So, please personalize template letters referenced above.
Comments