I will tell you i voted against the welfare bill, one of the proudest votes i have cast in the 26 years i served in the house of representatives. I need to set that record out there. Jared bernstein, i thank you for moderating this discussion and for the great work you do. One of the foremost leaders of economic policy. They do improve the lives of working americans. I want to recognize ron haskins and jane for the groundbreaking work on this topic then paves the way to so many conversations that were helped today. The Solutions Discussed today provide a constructive framefor members of congress. To approach the universal child allowance, the expansion of Child Tax Credits. It has been a productive and thoughtprovoking day. An opportunity to speak to you. It is a sitting book end to a Conference Held 50 years ago. And the school of social work, hold children allowance conference, expert in social welfare and economics with policies about makers to assure the issue of child allowance was given and i quote, serious review. This should drive the point home. We have had this conversation in some form or another. And a Bipartisan Commission in child and family policy, which explores a fully refundable Child Tax Credit, it was on may 1, 1991, 26 years ago. The Commission Approved the proposal which included a refundable Child Tax Credit in 1991. People work as staff, on that commission. We have the benefit today of drying new and compelling research. On the economic and health sides, the work makes clear, we need to invest in our youngest citizen, this is the key to reducing Child Poverty. To working families and our values. Our economy is more competitive when every child is in power, to make his or her full potential and yet, the United States spends just 1. 2 of gdp on family benefits. Less than half of the average of other advanced economies, others are doing more to help working families, the results speak for themselves. Among 35 industrialized nations. Universal travel allowances in all other industrialized nations. But not in the United States. These benefits are delivered monthly to help cover recurring costs. Countries, austria, canada, france, germany, norway, sweden, United Kingdom have all implemented some form of the monthly child benefit. And child allowances through the tax code of Child Tax Credit, their impact should not, in my view, be overstated. Last week, fox ran a thorough piece on Child Poverty in the United States, universal child allowance or tax credit who combat simply and effectively. Let me digress for one second, a murderers row of poverty experts, proposing a child allowance as antipoverty measure. Murderers row of course, some baseball fans will know this, the new york yankees, starting lineup in the 1920s, 1927. Lou gehrig, tony library and so on. It is a fitting analogy for the scholars and experts we had working on this issue. I apologize for this effort. We have a moral obligation. We have a moral obligation to elevate this issue and fight Child Poverty with every available resource. This brings to mind a quote from Robert Kennedy which is very specific. I believe that as long as there is plenty, poverty is evil. Government belongs wherever evil needs an adversary. And there are people in distress who cannot help. According to research by the center on poverty and social policy at columbia university, 56 of children are, quote, low income as compared to 43 of adults 18 through 64. Families with Young Children bear the heaviest burden, infants and toddlers among the poorest members of American Society with almost half living in low income families. Families across the board have been facing a financial squeeze, child related costs have skyrocketed in recent years, the cost of childcare, the cost of education, the cost of housing come of the cost of healthcare. From lack of government funding to daycare staffing. This represents 30 of the rising cost associated with pillars of the class Economic Security since 2000. We have an obligation. We have an obligation to do what we can to help households cope with these rising costs especially as wage failed to rise with them. Economists found families with Young Children receive the smallest tax credit. Poor Young Children are nearly 50 more likely to be ineligible for the Child Tax Credit than older children because their families earned too little. This runs counter to what we know from Child Development experts and economists on the importance of task in the earliest years. The mountains of literature and Research Supports the notion that these families are the ones that reap the most benefit. In 2050s, 53 higher, and the ages 3 to 5. The first years of a childs life. We need to focus efforts on supporting families and children in the first years. Study after study has shown dire consequences poverty can have on a childs future. Experience health problems, involved in the criminal justice and evidence suggests when we invest in Early Childhood development, we can turn those trends around. The Child Tax Credit was created in 1997 to help working families to raise children. Together the Child Tax Credit and earned income tax credit, more Child Poverty than any other federal policies. The Child Tax Credit is responsible for lifting 2. 8 Million People out of poverty including 1. 6 million to the policy priorities. The supplemental poverty measure. We made Great Strides recently, with the tc. And with more families, we could support more children. We have managed at the federal level to index the estate tax for the wealthiest americans but we have left out our children. Because the benefits of the Child Tax Credit based on earnings. And we had the evidence, we need to align the science, and have the will to do it. And i dont know what this number is. And under the age of 6 to 3600. And regular monthly payments. And for older children as well by allowing every dollar of earnings to triple what they generate for income families to receive the full credit. The bill would finally index the value of the tax credit with inflation keeping credit value from continuing to erode over time. Critical for the families with the most need where a parent may be staying home or out of work. There are proposals on the other side of the aisle but with some of that they only apply to working parents. This credit will give parents an economic boost to the Critical Development years when parental incomes tend to be lower, cost of childbearing tend to be higher and income matters most for kids with their longterm, to report, quote, doing more for our children giving families with younger children a larger credit would be more Cost Effective and lift larger percentage of children out of poverty and simply expanding the Child Tax Credit. Americas pediatrician called the idea, quote, a dose of economic protection for children and said healthy economics may be one of the best remedies of all for children and babies across our country. They have a profound effect on families who are living in deep poverty. In 2011, 4 of us households were living on 2 or less in cash income. You heard from kathy this afternoon. Schaefer was here today is one of the proposals authors. Living on almost nothing in america, should be required reading for all policymakers. For these families living in deep poverty, the tax system does little to assist them because of income thresholds. And these families enormously. It would end 2 a day poverty among families with Young Children. If we are serious, giving every child the opportunity to succeed in this country, we need the child allowance, to fully refundable, and larger than the existing tax credit. That is why the tax credit improved, focusing on investment in families with the youngest children, children under age 6 because they have the greatest need to. These benefits are particularly critical to rural families according to the department of agriculture. Their paper on federal tax policies and low income rural households and this is because children in rural areas are poorer on average and further away from other services. The panel held today on why Money Matters highlighted why cash has an outside positive impact on these families. The proposal would also help parents day at home, those with erratic Work Schedules and parents who need flexibility most who are left out of some of the republican plan that excludes the poorest families. Our childrens future is our collective responsibility but providing children with the resources they need to succeed is not just a moral obligation but an economic imperative. This is a rare moment where we have a real opportunity to translate scientific and economic evidence into policy and positively impact the lives of people actually living today. A bipartisan interest in this kind of policy, there are republican proposal for the Child Tax Credit. Marco rubio, mike lee, and there is a history of bipartisan support for these kinds of credits. The tiled tax credit was introduced in the republican contract with america in 1994. And first became law under a democratic president , bill clinton and a gop congress in 1997. If you look at the history of rent income tax, it has support from democrats and republicans and there are many conversations taking place about taxes. Surely, there can be and should be none for our youngest and most Vulnerable Children and families to be included. Last week the Trump Administration rolled out a hotline of tax proposals and while it is not fully fleshed out, it is clear okay . This proposal will not help families that are in most need. The biggest challenge that faces our country is that boring jobs that dont pay them enough money. Families do not make enough money to live on. All of our policies should share the goal of reducing the burden on working families, and policies have bipartisan interest in the past when this country has faced serious issues, came together in bipartisan fashion and we have the evidence to make our case. This fight is different from others because the biggest obstacle has not been lies or obstructionism but has been a difference to the condition of children and particularly poor children, it has come for tax credits, and it is long overdue. We are going to do it and your engagement, and policymaking and legislative process is imperative. Dont stop at the door, it goes nowhere unless there is a legislative process that never makes it operational. I look forward to your participation, i look forward to our discussion and thank you for allowing me to be here. [applause] so, let me sorry i am not appropriately dressed. I had a car incident this morning. I drive an american car by the way. I want to focus on politics, we talk about policy, parameters. I know you dont want to be sitting here 26 years from now having a similar discussion. What needs to happen for us to get the child allowance idea, to the conferences, a legislation that has real legs. Before you answer, it feels to me like the politics, you live this every day but im a denizen in this town, if anything politics goes the wrong way in that regard. It is. It is about the political will to turn this around but back to something i said. And you look at the policies today. People like George Mcgovern and bob dole and kennedy and schweikert and javits etc. These are folks who understood we have a national problem. This is about hunger in the United States. What direction will the nation take. I think of the critical issue for focus. They came up with school lunch programs, we do have another program, i continue to call it Foodstamp Program and these are under assault but people believed the problem, had to be something, they understood the reason they came to the congress which was to be able to put partisan politics aside, to focus on the issues. That being said, i mentioned in my remarks the earned income tax credit. If you look at the years in which the e itc, it began in 75 and was expanded over the years. If you look at that under what administration they occurred they were democrat and they were republican, who felt this was a way to raise people out of poverty. I dont want to stop you. Let me interject the connection between the eeoc cns work is the core of the political success you are stressing the by taking connection out, do we cut political legs off . I dont think so. Someone said earlier my focus is a Child Tax Credit. Newt gingrich, bill clinton signed it. Children should not have to be penalized. And what their circumstances of their household. And the issue, the critical issue is Child Poverty in this country which is grinding. You cant walk away from it. There has been an indifference. What are the ways, so Much Research out there, data that comes from overseas as well where the programs are working, they are lifting people out of poverty but to do that here, it doesnt have to have, we want to approach people to work and to find it offensive when people tell me folks do not want to work. We are defined by our job. People want to work whether you are a single mom or single dad or so forth, people want jobs to take care of their families and they have fallen on difficult times and that is the problem. Rich people and poor people, i cant say the lazy people have all been poor, leave it at that. This is a very cold kind of calculated political question. If we have a policy we are talking about and you have to get a majority in the house to vote for it. It would seem disconnecting it from work would make that heavier. Is that wrong . I think it is not wrong but i think you can have a discussion about it and the value of it and could be a good discussion. Your proposal it is expensive, we know that. I am looking at an increase of 84 billion for a Defense Budget in the 2018 budget. I am looking at the 2017 budget, an additional 12 billion for defense. We need to look at the nature of the issue, the nature of the problem. To get families back on track economically, and reducing Child Poverty. You pick through some of them. We have to look at it. It depends what your priorities are. If we do not look at this issue or what happened with families today and ways in which we can assist the process whether dealing with the social safety net issues. There is a great article, neil apps talked about the social safety net programs. To help encourage people to go to work and it is in fact the case but we also, take a look at the budget and in 2018 a skinny budget. Look at what we have done, they are going to cut job training. And their opportunities, we cut back drastically on the Pension Program to billions of dollars. 92 million to the United States to engage in apprenticeship programs. It is a large number in terms of our budget. That is a program that is shown to have pretty impressive effects when it is done right. I know the work of harry holzer and merryman and there is some Bipartisan Energy behind that. Lets talk about jobs and wages because i do think there is a problem, some of this debate, where conservatives assume the reason for people arent working as they dont want jobs and ignore the demand side of the equation. What do you think we need to do, you argue powerfully that most people want to work because they cant get by on the numbers we are talking about today. What do we need to do to increase the availability and opportunity of good remunerative gainful employment for the kinds of folks we are worried about . Take a look, two side of the equation. The biggest economic challenge, they dont pay them enough. How do we address the issue. The longerterm efforts, you are looking at education, job training, ways in connecticut, today i am reading articles about in the Aerospace Industry there are jobs but we dont have people who have the supply in this instance that is the case. What are we doing to address the supply side of that effort . Something i have worked on since 1997 is rebuilding our infrastructure in this country and i have been waiting to see what is happening with the new administration on infrastructure. I introduce to the central bank in 1997, transportation. It is environmental infrastructure, energy, telecommunications. There are all manner of jobs to look at. Pew along with the Marco Foundation issued a report talking about jobs in the economy and how we can help people gain training we need. Conservatives more open to this idea. During the recovery act, i know you know this because you were part of the idea is we had under tanf funds were subsidized in job slots which subsidized employment up to 80, 90 of the wage. My impression and that of some pretty rigorous evaluations was that worked well. So talk about what you think whether subsidized employment is part of the solution here in terms of labor demand at the low end and also m