Poor Laws & Poverty

• Aid to Dependent Children (1935)
• Social Security Act of 1935
• United States Housing Act of 1937
• Economic Opportunity Act of 1964
• Food Stamp Act of 1964
• Elementary & Secondary Education Act of 1965
• Medicaid Act (1965)
• Personal Responsibility & Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (1996)

Congressional Digest provides a monthly analysis of the pros and cons of public policy issues. For example:

• 2021: April -- Federal Minimum Wage
• 2020: March -- Access to Food Stamps; May -- Fighting Homelessness
• 2018: June -- Migrant Children
• 2014: April -- Early Childhood Education & Head Start
• 2013: May -- Raising the Minimum Wage; November -- Food Stamps & SNAP
• 2011: March -- The Health Care Debate Continues; June -- Medicare & the Budget
• 2010: March -- Job Creation; December -- Child Nutrition: Combating Hunger & Obesity in America
• 2009: September -- Poverty in America
• 2004: February -- The Ongoing Medicare Debate
• 2002: September -- The Debate Over the 1996 Reform Continues
• 2000: March -- Minimum Wage & The Debate Over Raising the Hourly Rate
• 1997: October -- Public Housing Reform
• 1995: June/July -- Welfare Reform; October -- Privatizing Social Security; November -- Medicare Reform
• 1992: June/July -- Capping Federal Entitlement Programs
• 1989: May -- Minimum Wage Legislation
• 1988: February -- Welfare Reform; June/July -- The Fair Housing Amendments Act
• 1987: April -- Federal Catastrophic Health Insurance; August/September -- Raising the Minimum Wage
• 1985: April -- Subminimum Wage for Youth
• 1983: April -- Controversy Over Social Security Reform Proposals
• 1981: January -- Controversy Over the Food Stamp Program; March -- Controversy Over "Fair Housing"; August/September -- Controversy Over Financing Social Security
• 1980: January -- The Welfare Reform Amendments Act
• 1978: May -- Congress & The Welfare Reform Controversy
• 1977: May -- Controversy Over New Federal Minimum Wage Proposals
• 1975: May -- Controversy in the Congress Over Food Stamps
• 1973: August/September -- Controversy Over the Federal Role in Aiding Low-Income Individuals
• 1972: April -- Proposed Revision of the Federal Minimum Wage Law
• 1970: June/July -- Congress & The "Family Assistance Plan"
• 1968: January -- Controversy Over the Federal Job Corps; February -- Congress & The Community Action Program; June/July -- Congress & Public Welfare Revision
• 1967: October -- Question of Guaranteed Annual Incomes
• 1966: February -- Proposals to Change Minimum Wage Law; March -- Congress & The Johnson Poverty Program
• 1964: June/July -- U.S. Food Surpluses & The Nation's Needy; October -- Federal Public Works & Unemployment; December -- The Question of a Separate Federal Program for the Development of "Appalachia"
• 1960: February -- Move to Raise & Extend the Minimum Wage
• 1957: June/July -- The Extent of Minimum Wage Coverage
• 1950: August/September -- Debate Topic/Resolved "That the American People Should Reject the Welfare State"
• 1945: November -- Should Congress Pass the Pepper Minimum Wage Increase Bill?
• 1936: November -- The Question of Fixing a Minimum Wage for American Industry
• 1931: February -- Congress Considers a New Maternity & Infancy Bill
• 1923: March -- The Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act Before the Courts
• 1921: October -- The "Maternity Bill"; November -- The Fess-Kenyon Public Welfare Department Bill

Chapter Be -- Economic Inequality and Poverty

• Poverty Essay (27 pages)
• Poverty Lines (9 tables), e.g.,
  • Minimum subsistence budgets and poverty lines,
    by family size, 1908-1963
  • Weighted-average official poverty thresholds and
    selected alternative poverty lines, by family size, 1947-1999
• Characteristics of the Poverty Population (8 tables), e.g.,
  • Families below poverty threshold, by family type and the sex,
    race, and Hispanic origin of the household head, 1959-1999
  • Persons age 65 or older below poverty threshold,
    by race and Hispanic origin, 1959-1999

U.S. Congressional Serial Set and American State Papers

American State Papers, 1789-1838 (Readex)

U.S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1980 (Readex)

Browse by Subjects:

• Social Issues
  • Almshouses
  • Child welfare
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Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800

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• Economics & Trade 
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  • Poor
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