For much of the past year, most every American has been looking forward to the day when optimism can replace dread. With vaccination numbers climbing, COVID cases and deaths declining, the economy showing signs of healing and winter ending, many might feel that day has come. And while I am truly optimistic, my optimism is for the vision of what our nation could be, not for what it was before the pandemic or what it is now.
A large swath of the country received a dose of good news last week with the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act, a bold and historic injection of support and hope for more than 100 million people. Many of these households have been devastated during this pandemic and economic collapse, but a significant number have been underserved by our government for generations. Certain provisions of the legislation will together reduce the U.S. poverty rate by more than one-third in 2021, according to a new Urban Institute report that was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The report projects a 50 percent decline in the child poverty rate and even higher poverty rate declines among families that lost jobs during the pandemic. The implementation of this law provides one more pillar of hope that better days are ahead.
The above is an excerpt of a piece originally published in The Hill.
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