The 10-20-30 Provision: Defining Persistent Poverty Counties (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
Revised Feb. 27, 2023 |
| Report Number |
R45100 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
Dalaker, Joseph |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
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Summary:
Anti
-
poverty interventions that provide resources to local communities, based on the
characteristics of those comm
unities, have been of
interest to Congress
.
One such p
olicy, dubbed
the “10
-
20
-
30 plan
,” was implemented in the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009
(ARRA
,
P.L. 111
-
5
)
.
Title I, Section 105 of ARRA required the Secretary
of Agriculture to
allocate
at least 10% of funds from
three rur
al development
program accounts
to persistent
poverty counties; that is, to counties that have had poverty rates of 20% or more for the past 30
years, as measured by the 1980, 1990, and 2000 decennial censuses
.
One notable characteris
tic of
this
plan
is that it did
not
increase spending for the rural development programs addre
ssed in
ARRA, but rather targeted
existing funds differently
.
Research has suggested that areas for which the
poverty rate
(the percentage of the population
that is below po
verty) reaches 20%
exper
ience systemic problems that are
more
acute
than
in
lower
-
poverty areas
.
Therefore, policy interventions at the community level
(such as applying the
10
-
20
-
30
plan,
to other programs besides
those cited in
ARRA)
, and not only at the individual or
family le
vel, could
continue
to
be of interest to Congress
.
Poverty rates are computed using data from household su
rveys
.
Currently, the only
data sources
that provide poverty estimates for all U.S. counties are the American Community Survey (ACS)
and the Small
Area Income and Poverty Estimates program (SAIPE); before the mid
-
1990s, the
decennial census was the only source of county poverty estimates
.
Therefore, to determine
whether an area is “persistently” poor in a time span that ends after the year 2000, it m
ust first be
decided whether ACS or SAIPE poverty estimates will be used for the later part of that time span.
Lists of persistent poverty counties may differ by roughly 80 to 100 counties in a particular year,
depending on the data source selected
to comp
ile the list and
the rounding method used for the
poverty rate estimates
.
When determining the method to be used to compile a list of persistent
poverty counties, the following may be relevant to consider:
Characte
ristics of i
nterest: SAIPE
is suited
for
poverty
or median income
alone
;
ACS for oth
er topics in addition to poverty and income
.
Geographic areas of i
nterest: SAIPE
is recommended
for counties and school
districts
only; ACS produces estimates
for
other small
geographic
areas
as well
.
Reference p
e
riod
of e
stimate: SAIPE for one
year; ACS for
a five
-
year span
.
Rounding method for poverty rates: rounding to 20.0% (one decimal place)
yields a shorter list than
rounding to 20% (whole number)
.
Poverty status is not defined for all persons: foster child
ren (unrelated individuals
under age 15)
,
institutionalized persons, and residents of college dormitories are
excluded; the homeless are not target
ed by household surveys; and areas with
large numbers of students living off
-
campus may have high poverty rat
es
.
