There are currently 488 counties in America where twenty percent of the population has lived below the poverty line for the past thirty years or more. In the House of Representatives in the 113th Congress, 139 of these counties—known as persistent poverty counties—are represented by Democrats, 331 are represented by Republicans, and 18 are split between the two parties. It is clearly a bipartisan concern. Congressman James E. Clyburn included language in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which directed ten percent of rural development funding to be spent in these persistent poverty counties and he believes future spending bills should include this so-called 10-20-30 amendment to help address long-term unmet needs in these areas. In this article, Congressman Clyburn discusses the history of our nation’s efforts to address chronic poverty and lays out the case for broadly implementing the 10-20-30 amendment with bipartisan support.

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