On November 19th, Children’s HealthWatch submitted a testimony to Chairwoman Chang-Diaz, Chairwoman Khan, and members of the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities. Currently, the state has opportunities to improve the health of young children and reduce economic hardship by enacting legislation that responds to the realities of families with young children. We write in strong support of the following:

• H.173/S.58: An Act Relative To Economic Mobility For Families With Low-Incomes

Across Massachusetts, families and individuals are struggling to achieve economic mobility as a result of a limited and expensive housing market, coupled with stagnated incomes and high costs of other basic needs such as childcare and food. H.173/S.58 would address this by improving access to assistance programs through the establishment of a telephone hotline, ensuring data transparency and system alignment to better understand successes of government programs and gaps in services, and direction to the Secretariats to study the impacts of minimum wage increases on cliff effects and accordingly make changes in assistance programs. We urge the committee to swiftly and favorably report this important piece of legislation out of committee.