National Research Council

THE NATIONAL RESEARCH Council is a part of the National Academies. These consist of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. All of the National Academies are private, nonprofit organizations. The U.S. Congress chartered them as private organizations that could be advisers on science, technology, and health policies considered or reviewed after adoption.

The National Research Council was organized in 1916 by the National Academy of Sciences in order to network the wide-ranging groups and individuals working in pure science or in technological fields. In addition, the National Academy of Sciences has the goal of advancing knowledge as well as advising the government of the United States.

Over the decades of its operation, the National Research Council has become the chief operating agency for the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. The council works under the direction of general policies adopted by the academy. It is administered jointly by the Academies of Science and of Engineering, and also by the Institute of Medicine through the National Research Council Governing Board.

In 1990 a congressional committee asked the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council to conduct a study of the official U.S. poverty measure. The study was conducted with the view that reforms may be necessary. Mollie Orshansky developed the official measure in 1963, and it was still in use in 1995. Her original intention was not to develop a measurement of poverty but to measure the relative risks of low economic status. Her measurement was derived from the Agriculture Department's economy food plan. The measurement was named the poverty threshold and it was used thereafter, despite its problems.

In June 1992 the Committee on National Statistics of the National Research Council appointed a panel to study the old poverty measurement. It was a two-part study. The first part examined the statistical issues that arise from attempts to measure and understand poverty. The second part was concerned with issues that might arise if a national minimum welfare benefit were established.

The new measure to be used in the future would continue to define poverty as economic deprivation. However, instead of deriving poverty thresholds by means of a food plan and a multiplier, the panel proposed a poverty threshold that would be a budget combined with an allowance for food, clothing, shelter, and additional sums for other miscellaneous needs. Using a reference family (two adults and two children) as a touchstone, the panel set a reasonable range for a median annual expenditure for these items as guided by the Consumer Expenditure Survey.

The panel's report was published in 1995. The report proposed that the Survey of Income and Program Participation should become the basis of the official United States income and poverty statistics, in place of the March income supplement to the Current Population Survey.

Under the proposed measure and using 1992 figures, the panel said a reasonable range for the poverty threshold would be $13,700 to $15,900 (in 1992 dollars) for a family of two adults and two children. This figure does not differ dramatically from the 1992 poverty line of $14,228, but the new method calculates family resources very differently.

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