After years of advocacy by Insight Center, Wider Opportunities for Women, and other state and national leaders, Representative Jim McDermott (D-WA) introduced the Measuring American Poverty Act of 2008 (H.R. 6941). The bill would create a new "Modern Poverty Measure" using updated methodology and statistics to calculate a living standard threshold that more accurately reflects what it costs to make ends meet in today's economy (similar to our Family Economic Self-Sufficiency Standard). The Insight Center submitted testimony at a Congressional Ways and Means Committee hearing in support of this effort.