Bill > A2331

Introduced Session

This bill would establish the New Jersey Commission on Poverty Elimination and Economic Security ("commission"), and the Interagency Working Group on Poverty and Economic Insecurity ("interagency working group") in, but not of, the Department of Human Services. Notwithstanding this allocation, the commission and the interagency working group will be independent of any supervision or control by the department or any officer or employee thereof. The commission is to be composed of 25 voting members, including four members of the legislative branch of government, one member of the judicial branch of government, and 20 public members. The members of the newly established interagency working group will also serve as ex officio non-voting members of the commission. The purpose of the commission will be to: 1) improve policymakers' understanding of poverty, including its root causes, and its impacts on various measures of economic stability and economic outcomes, including educational attainment levels, rates of incarceration, lifetime earnings rates, access to housing, access to health care, and health care outcomes; 2) support governmental efforts to ensure that residents of the State have the equal opportunity to achieve economic security; and 3) develop a strategic plan to address poverty and economic insecurity in the State, as provided by the bill, and otherwise provide recommendations to the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government, to reduce and ultimately eliminate poverty and economic insecurity in the State. The strategic plan is to be developed within 18 months after the bill's effective date. The general goals of the strategic plan will be to: 1) ensure that State programs and services targeting poverty and economic insecurity reflect the goal of helping individuals and families to rise above poverty and achieve long-term economic stability, rather than simply providing relief from deprivation; 2) eliminate disparate rates of poverty, deep poverty, child poverty, and intergenerational poverty that are based on race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation or identity, English language proficiency, ability, or geographic location in a rural, urban, or suburban area; 3) reduce deep poverty in the State by 50 percent by 2026; 4) eliminate child poverty in the State by 2031; and 5) eliminate all poverty in the State by 2036. In developing the strategic plan, the commission will be required to collaborate with the interagency working group established under the bill, and will further be required to hold at least six public hearings in different geographic regions of the State, including regions that have disparate rates of poverty or historical experience with economic insecurity, in order to collect information, take testimony, and solicit input and feedback from interested parties, including members of the public who have personal experience with State programs and services targeting poverty, deep poverty, child poverty, intergenerational poverty, and economic insecurity. Information collected will be made available to the public. The strategic plan is to: 1) identify, or provide for the development of, fact-based measures to be used both in identifying rates of poverty and economic insecurity in the State and in evaluating the long-term effectiveness of existing and proposed programs and services targeting poverty and economic insecurity in the State; 2) evaluate the current status of, and establish interim goals for the improvement, throughout the State, of: access to adequate food and nutrition; access to affordable and quality health care; equal access to safe and affordable housing; equal access to quality education and training; equal access to affordable, quality post-secondary education options; access to dependable and affordable transportation; access to quality and affordable child care; opportunities to engage in meaningful and sustainable work that pays a living wage; barriers that prevent low-income individuals in poverty from accessing available affordable housing, nutritious food, quality health care, education, transportation, and child care, from utilizing programs and services available to address poverty and economic instability, or from accessing or taking advantage of meaningful and sustainable work opportunities; equal access to justice through a fair system of criminal justice that does not, in effect, criminalize poverty; access to adequate income supports; and retirement security; 3) provide various policy and fiscal recommendations regarding the actions that should be undertaken by State, local, and private actors, as appropriate, to address certain specified issues related to poverty and economic insecurity. For each recommendation, the strategic plan is to identify, in measurable terms, the actual or potential impact the recommendation will have on poverty and economic insecurity in the State and on the achievement of the goals of the strategic plan; and 4) identify best practices for the collection of data on various issues related to poverty and economic insecurity. The strategic plan is also to contain: 1) a suggested timeline for the stages of implementation for each recommendation developed thereunder; 2) short-term, intermediate-term, and long-term benchmarks to measure the State's progress toward achieving the general goals of the strategic plan, as outlined in the bill, and the specific interim goals identified in the plan itself; and 3) a summary of the extent to which the commission has collaborated with the interagency working group with respect to the review and analysis of relevant data on poverty and economic insecurity. The commission will be required to submit a number of different reports to the Governor and the Legislature, including: 1) an interim report on the commission's activities, which is to be submitted within six months after the effective date of this act; 2) a written report summarizing the commission's activities and containing a copy of the commission's strategic plan, which is to be submitted immediately following the commission's adoption of the strategic plan, and not later than 18 months after the effective date of this act; and 3) an annual report evaluating the status of the implementation of the strategic plan, and providing any supplemental recommendations the commission deems necessary to reduce or eliminate poverty and economic insecurity in the State, the first of which is to be submitted one year after the publication of the commission's strategic plan. The bill requires the State Treasurer to include, in the materials that are submitted to the Legislature outlining the Governor's proposed annual budget, a description of any budget proposals or other activities, ongoing projects, or plans of the executive branch that are designed to meet the goals and objectives of the strategic plan. The Interagency Working Group on Poverty and Economic Insecurity, established under the bill, is to be composed of the Commissioners of Human Services, Health, Labor and Workforce Development, Education, Community Affairs, Corrections, and Agriculture, and the State Treasurer, or their designees who are to be employed at the assistant commissioner or assistant treasurer level of the respective department. The working group will be required to meet at least four times a year, and will have the power and duty to: 1) identify, analyze, gain an understanding of, and propose recommendations to address, the root causes of poverty and economic insecurity, including the social, economic, and cultural factors that contribute to poverty and economic insecurity; 2) identify, analyze, gain an understanding of, and propose recommendations to address intergenerational poverty, in accordance with the bill's provisions; 3) study and measure the effect that poverty and economic insecurity have on worker productivity and economic output, and on the health and welfare of children, including children's access to health care, housing, proper nutrition, and quality education; 4) identify State programs, including those programs related to economic development, job creation, job training, the environment, disaster relief, hazard mitigation, extreme weather, and climate change, which require reform in order to better target resources to low-income, minority, rural, urban, and other populations or geographic areas suffering from economic insecurity and disparate rates of poverty; 5) measure the fiscal impact on the State of successfully transitioning individuals and families from poverty to long-term economic stability; 6) establish an ongoing system of data sharing, policy coordination, and communication among and within State agencies, local agencies, and other organizations, including the commission, which are involved in the provision of programs or services that are aimed at improving economic security and eliminating poverty; 7) identify knowledge gaps, research needs, and policy and program deficiencies associated with economic insecurity and poverty; 8) assist the commission in the development of the strategic plan, including through the sharing and analysis of relevant data and information; and 9) coordinate the implementation of the strategic plan, including by advising and assisting relevant agencies in the implementation of the strategic plan, advising relevant agencies on specific programmatic and policy matters related to the strategic plan, providing relevant subject matter expertise to each agency for the purposes of implementing the specific recommendations in the strategic plan, and identifying and addressing issues that may influence the future implementation of the strategic plan. Not later than September 1 of each year, the working group will be required to post on the Internet website of the Department of Human Services, and submit to the Governor and Legislature, a written report that includes: 1) relevant data assessing the scope and depth of intergenerational poverty in the State; 2) a 20-year history of poverty rates in this State, with a focus on any reduction or increase in the rates that has occurred during the previous 10-year period or since the inception of the working group; 3) a summary of actions taken and outcomes obtained by the working group in fulfilling its duties; 4) a summary of progress that has been made in relation to the reduction of poverty and economic insecurity in the State, including policies or procedures that have been implemented to reduce or eliminate the cycle of poverty and intergenerational poverty as a result of the data collected by the working group; and 5) any recommendations for legislative or regulatory action that can be undertaken to further the goals of the strategic plan. Finally, the bill requires the Department of Human Services to establish and maintain an electronic data tracking system to track intergenerational poverty in the State. The data tracking system is to identify and track groups that have a high risk of experiencing intergenerational poverty; identify incidents, patterns, and trends that explain or contribute to intergenerational poverty; and gather and track available local, State, and national data on official poverty rates, child poverty rates, years spent by an individual in childhood poverty, years spent by an individual in adult poverty, public assistance program enrollment rates, and related poverty information. A summary of the data, findings, and potential additional uses of the system is to be included in each annual report that is submitted by the interagency working group under the bill's provisions.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Bill Moen (D)*,  Bill Spearman (D), 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Community Development and Women's Affairs Committee (on 01/13/2026)

Official Document