On July 17, the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources held a hearing, “Evaluating Efforts to Help Families Support their Children and Escape Poverty.” Chair Dave Reichert (R-WA), Ranking Member Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), and other members of the committee heard testimony regarding the effectiveness of programs designed to help low-income families and individuals.
Tara Smith, research associate, Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources at the University of Texas at Austin’s Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, said, “Federal programs, whether contract or grant funded, should encourage or require investments in program models and strategies that have consistently been found to be effective. Strategies that focus on basic skills, provide counseling and other support services, increase opportunities to ‘earn and learn’ so that parents can support their families while in training, and target skill development at high wage, high demand occupations in the local labor market all appear to have significant, rigorous evaluation support and could be promoted in federal programs. Because no single approach would work in every community or with every disadvantaged population, it is important to identify which strategies appear to be best applied in a given context. The federal government can help build the needed knowledge base for understanding what works by funding evaluation studies of its investments using a variety of research methods that have been proven both rigorous and cost-effective.
The following witnesses also testified:
