Confirmation of Adewale O. Adeyemo

Floor Speech

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Mr. WARNOCK. Mr. President, I rise today to join my colleagues-- Senator Brown; Senator Booker; the Presiding Officer, Senator Bennet-- in shining a bright spotlight on the tragedy of child poverty and what the Senate needs to do and can do to eliminate poverty permanently-- child poverty across our country.

Someone has said that children are the casualties of every age, and while this is a longstanding problem, the fight could not be more urgent as countless families work to pull themselves out of the economic misery caused by a once-in-a-century pandemic. This pain is felt all across our country.

But as we talk about the issue of child poverty, this is not theoretical. For me, it is personal. I grew up in public housing. I am one of 12 children in my family. I am No. 11 and the first college graduate. I stand here today as a U.S. Senator, but I am the product of good Federal public policy and good public schools. I know that what we do in this Chamber makes a difference in the lives of families and in the lives of all of our children. My life's journey is a testament to the promise of our country, the greatest country on Earth, when we make the necessary investments in our youth and enable them to thrive.

As a pastor, I speak to young people all the time, and I often go back to my hometown of Savannah, GA, and communities all across Georgia like the neighborhood I grew up in. In my efforts to inspire children who are struggling, I tell them that your parent's income does not have to determine your outcome. It is not where you start; it is where you end up.

Now, that is what I say to them, and I believe it, because they need to be inspired to give it all that they have got. But the truth is, when I tell them that their parent's income does not determine their outcome, that is not based simply on what they do, but on what we do. That has to be made real through good public policy.

That is why I am so proud to work with my Senate colleagues and I was so happy to join this U.S. Senate at such a critical time in our country, and in a moment, when we, buoyed by the people of Georgia who made a historic choice, our majority enabled us to pass the American Rescue Plan.

Over the past year, we have seen how the consequences of COVID-19 and the economic downturn that followed it have both illuminated and exacerbated so many of the longstanding disparities that have challenged Georgians, Americans, and people everywhere. We know that low-income families and children, especially, have not only not been spared but have, in many ways, suffered more than most. Children are casualties at every age.

According to data from the Center for American Progress, we know that nearly one in five children in Georgia was living in poverty last year. Think about that: nearly one in five children in poverty in the middle of a pandemic. It is tough enough to live in poverty, but it is even tougher to live in poverty in the middle of a pandemic. What could be tougher than being a child in poverty in a pandemic?

Another 217,000 of those children live in what we could call extreme poverty in the United States--stock markets soaring and children struggling and no relationship between what is happening on Wall Street and what is happening on their streets. It is our job to make it true when I say to them that their parent's income need not determine their outcome.

I don't know about anyone else, but I think that these high rates of child poverty are unacceptable in the greatest, richest country on the planet. Often, we tell our children to stay on the right road, to stay out of trouble, and we should--stay focused--but we ought to spread that net of responsibility.

The truth is, poverty is its own violence. Poverty is a violence that traumatizes the mind, oppresses the body, and bruises the human spirit, so that is why the American Rescue Plan is so necessary, so important, and so historic. I am glad that Senators Booker, Brown, and Bennet--I feel a little left out, the odd guy out here--I am glad that we were able to push through, in the American Rescue Plan, a landmark expansion of two tax credit programs: the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit.

Now, I am calling on all my Senate colleagues to join us in making these expansions permanent. By increasing the child tax credit, thousands of more dollars a year will flow into the pockets of the children and families who need it most, cutting poverty--child poverty--nationwide in half.

In Georgia, more than 1 million families with children will benefit from the increased tax refund, and it will lift more than 171,000 Georgia children out of poverty. Those are my neighbors and yours. Those are kids around my church and who attend my church.

So I want to be clear. Not only were we able to expand the tax refund so that more families are getting more money, but we were able to do so in such a way that it gives families a monthly cash payment providing greater financial security.

This is going to be a gamechanger for so many families, especially those who did not previously qualify for the credit when it was used just to offset taxes already owed to the government. Prior to this expansion, we had folk who were too poor to get our help. There is something wrong about that--too poor to get our help. This expansion corrects that. Now, we are putting dollars directly into the hands of the families who need it the most.

In the COVID package, we were able to strengthen the earned income tax credit, nearly tripling the maximum tax refund allowed for qualifying workers because we have to make sure that childless families in our communities also have the support they need to pay their rent, keep food on the table, and more to keep our communities strong.

Taken together, expanding and extending these programs are a major move toward eliminating child poverty and poverty in general once and for all in Georgia and all across our country, but it is still not enough to truly tackle the issue. We have included this in the American Rescue Plan; now, we must make it permanent. As so often is the case, the right thing to do is also the smart thing to do. This will not only help these families, it will help the American economy.

I am just old enough to remember when they started talking about trickle-down economics. I know some communities where they have been waiting for decades for that trickle. It hadn't trickled down; it is trickling up.

The right thing to do is often the smart thing to do. When we help these families, it is actually good economic policy. Because when you help poor families with children, they buy things like food, baby diapers, a coat for their kid, and it helps the American economy.

The right thing to do is the smart thing to do. If Congress can slash child poverty for 1 year, why wouldn't we or shouldn't we do it once and for all? And so I urge the Senate to stand up and do this work in this moral moment in America.

In just a few days, I will go home. I will stand up, and I will preach on Easter Sunday morning. This year, as it turns out, Easter is on April 4. It is the anniversary of Dr. King's death. So I will be thinking about Dr. King as I preach this coming Easter because Dr. King spent his last birthday, January 15, 1968, in his office, at our church, among other things, planning the Poor People's Campaign, trying to organize us and get us ready to stand up against poverty. He spent his birthday thinking about other people's children because he understood that his children would not be OK until other people's children were OK.

April 4 is his birthday. April 4 is also Easter this year. Let's make these tax credits permanent and resurrect hope and possibility and promise for all of America's children.

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