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Representative David Schweikert - Vice Chairman

Lee Outlines SSI Reforms to Help More Children Transition from Poverty

Lee Outlines SSI Reforms to Help More Children Transition from Poverty

Lee Outlines SSI Reforms to Help More Children Transition from Poverty

WASHINGTON—Today, Ranking Member Mike Lee (R-UT) released a Joint Economic Committee report outlining policy reforms to improve outcomes for children enrolled in the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. 

The report explores how the SSI program, originally created to serve low-income elderly and disabled Americans who cannot support themselves, has grown in recent decades to enroll more than one million American children.

While providing SSI to children was meant to help them become self-supporting adults, the report shows that the SSI child program has failed to set up children for independence and success as adults.

Ranking Member Lee said, "Our report documents how the limits of the SSI child program make it more difficult for low-income and disabled youth to move into work and self-sufficiency as adults.

"We as a nation can do better at helping Americans transition from poverty to opportunity. The ideas proposed in this report are a start for policymakers on reforming the many federal policies that inadvertently keep too many children and families in poverty."

Policymakers should streamline programs like the SSI child program, ensure that they support and encourage work for those who are able, and make our welfare system more effective at helping Americans transition out of poverty.

Read the full report here.

The Joint Economic Committee is Congress's bicameral economic research center and home of the Social Capital Project, led by Ranking Member Mike Lee.

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