HR0778LRB098 19465 MST 54633 r

1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The War on Poverty is the unofficial name for
3legislation first introduced by President Lyndon B. Johnson in
4January of 1964 in response to a national poverty rate of 19%;
5and
 
6    WHEREAS, As part of his "Great Society", President Johnson
7believed in expanding the government's role in education and
8health care as poverty reduction strategies; and
 
9    WHEREAS, Major initiatives of the War on Poverty included
10the Social Security Act of 1965, the Food Stamp Act of 1964,
11the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, and the Elementary and
12Secondary Education Act; and
 
13    WHEREAS, This legislation had a dramatic effect, and in the
14decade that followed the 1964 start of the War on Poverty,
15poverty rates in the United States dropped to 11.1% in 1973;
16they have remained between 11% and 15.2% ever since; and
 
17    WHEREAS, Despite their positive effects, the popularity of
18War on Poverty legislation waned after the 1960s; an
19ideological shift occurred in the 1980s and 1990s, reducing
20federal aid to impoverished people; and
 

 

 

HR0778- 2 -LRB098 19465 MST 54633 r

1    WHEREAS, As of 2014, The poverty rate in the United States
2has stood at 15% for 3 consecutive years; this is the first
3time this has happened since the mid-1960s; therefore, be it
 
4    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
5NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
6we recognize the 50th anniversary of President Johnson's War on
7Poverty and sound a renewed call to fight to make Illinois and
8the United States a more fair and just society.