The Majority Leader’s Office is now sending a weekly e-mail highlighting economic statistics and news that Members can use as they discuss the state of the economy and how House Democrats are working to spur economic growth, support job creation, and raise wages for the people.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres urged countries and companies Thursday to tackle climate change, saying failure to do so would mean ‘economic disaster.’ ‘For too long, vested interests have peddled the false story that economic growth and tackling climate change are incompatible,’ the U.N. chief said. ‘This is nonsense.’” [Fortune, 12/12/19]

STAT OF THE WEEK:  The President’s cuts to nutrition assistance could hit up to 5.3 million households. “The Trump administration has proposed three changes this year to the federal food stamp program, one of which was adopted last week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and would deny food stamps to nearly 700,000 Americans. The two other proposed rules would make it harder for people across the country to qualify for food stamps and reduce aid eligibility for Americans in cold-weather states. A total of about 2.2 million households could lose access to government food assistance, while another 3.1 million may see reduced benefits, a recent analysis found.” [CBS News, 12/10/19]

ECONOMIC NEWS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

• Two million Americans are without proper water infrastructure, impacting communities of color and rural communities the most. “Native American households are 19 times as likely as white households to lack indoor plumbing; blacks and Latinos are twice as likely… Federal funding for water infrastructure has dropped to about one-seventh of what it was in the 1970s after the passage of the Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water acts, which established partnerships in which the federal government set national standards for water quality that the states were responsible for implementing.” [Washington Post, 12/11/19]
• A recent poll found that a majority of Americans say the strong economy is helping the wealthy, while hurting the poor and the middle class. “Overall, nearly 70% of respondents said current conditions are helping the wealthy, 50% said they are helping those with college degrees, and 46% said they are helping people who are white. Meanwhile, more than 3 in 5 respondents said current economic conditions are hurting young adults, the poor, older adults or people without college degrees. Nearly 60% of those surveyed said the economy is hurting the middle class, and nearly half of respondents said the economy is hurting people who are black or people who are Hispanic...” [CNBC, 12/11/19]