Community Services Block Grant Modernization Act of 2022

Floor Speech

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Mr. SABLAN. Madam Speaker, H.R. 5129, the Community Services Block Grant Modernization Act, improves and expands access to the only federal program with the overarching goal of reducing poverty, regardless of cause or condition. Since Congress established the predecessor of the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson's ``War on Poverty,'' the program has helped people achieve economic stability, secure meaningful employment and education, gain and improve job-related skills, and obtain housing. Such support is particularly crucial for communities in the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa-- where poverty rates are significantly higher than in the rest of America. In the Marianas, 52.3 percent of the population is considered low-income, according to census data.

The Community Services Block Grant Modernization Act helps alleviate such poverty by increasing overall funding for the program, updating eligibility guidelines, and eliminating the arbitrary grant allocations to the insular areas. H.R. 5129 provides an increased annual funding level of $1 billion for the first five years. The bill also permanently raises income eligibility to 200 percent of the poverty line, as temporarily provided in the CARES Act, so more people can get the help they need.

To better align funding allocations to the insular areas to meet its anti-poverty mission, the Community Services Block Grant Modernization Act mandates a data-based formula and transparency in how that formula is calculated. Under current law, the Secretary of Health and Human Services possesses total discretion to allocate CSBG funding based on what he or she ``believes'' the need is in each insular area. This changes under H.R. 5129. Language I included in the bill during the Education and Labor Committee's markup requires the Secretary to base its grant allocations on the most recent census poverty data available. That allocation formula must be published publicly and updated no less frequently than any time new applicable census data are available. Using a regularly updated, poverty-based formula will help ensure communities receive the support necessary to serve individuals and families in need.

At a time when communities nationwide continue to be impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, the improvements to the CSBG program under H.R. 5129 will increase help for the most vulnerable in our communities.

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