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The
expression, “give a man a fish and he eats for one
day; teach a man to fish and he eats for the rest of
his life,” goes to the heart of how we can make
Welfare as we know it a more successful program.
Most Americans who rely on Welfare want nothing more
than to get out of this program and move onto a path
of self-sufficiency and a bright and successful
future.
For
those of us in Congress, we have the means before us
of accomplishing that goal. As a member of the
Senate Finance Committee, I have worked with my
colleagues to pass out of Committee legislation to
reauthorize the Welfare bill, which is already 3
years overdue. We have made significant
improvements to this essential program – now we must
work to ensure that this legislation receives the
President’s signature and starts helping those who
most need it.
Welfare,
which is officially called The Temporary Assistance
for Needy Families (TANF) Program, is an essential
program that works to improve the livelihoods of
families that are the most in need. It provides
assistance and work opportunities to struggling
families by granting States the federal funds and
wide flexibility to develop and implement their own
welfare programs. I have long been a supporter of
this program and as a member of the Senate Finance
Committee, I have worked to increase funding for
some of the program’s most important provisions and
encourage reauthorization of the entire bill.
TANF
strives to move recipients into work and turn
welfare into a program of temporary assistance.
Under the welfare reform legislation of 1996, TANF
replaced the old welfare programs known as Aid to
Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), the Job
Opportunities and Basic Skills Training (JOBS)
program and the Emergency Assistance (EA) program.
The law ended federal entitlement to assistance and
instead created TANF as a block grant that provides
States and tribes federal funds each year. These
funds cover benefits, administrative expenses, and
services targeted to needy families.
It is
time for us to enact a specific blueprint for TANF
for the future- one that builds on past successes
while addressing the shortcomings revealed by time.
The recent Finance Committee mark up of this bill,
which enhances work requirements but also improves
flexibility for states to help remove barriers to
employment, contains a number of positive,
commonsense provisions that will prove to be
extremely beneficial.
For
example, the bill rightly recognizes that some
families face longer-term barriers than others. It
will allow states to count people who are caregivers
of a disabled dependent as meeting the requirements
under certain circumstances. It also give states
flexibility by providing partial credit toward a
state’s work participation rate when there is
partial compliance with hourly requirements by
recipients.
One of
the most important provisions that I successfully
worked to have included in the bill is adequate
child care funding. If the aim of welfare reform is
to move people off the welfare rolls and onto
payrolls, providing support in the form of quality
child care is a prerequisite to realizing that goal.
This bill includes mandatory child care funding
which is a critical element to the success of
welfare reform. There is no question of the need of
such an inclusion because it is impossible for
parents to return to work if they are unable to find
or afford adequate child care. Under the provisions
of this bill, working Mainers in the TANF program
would receive an extra $4 million per year for
childcare and the program overall would receive an
extra $5 billion.
Another
provision that I had included is expanded state
flexibility option is based on Maine’s highly
successful “Parents as Scholars” program. This
program counts college and vocational education as
work and allows up to 10 percent of the state’s TANF
caseload to take part. Maine’s program has been
wildly successful, with graduates averaging a 50
percent increase in salaries and with 90 percent of
working graduates leaving welfare permanently.
Increased education is a critical factor in whether
a person will transition off welfare and keep a job
with a decent income.
I
believe these provisions will secure the future
success of TANF because they uphold the original
intent of the legislation passed in 1996- to assist
states in helping TANF clients to move onto payrolls
and to remain employed. It moves individuals toward
self-sufficiency through vocational training and
post secondary education opportunities. It also
ensures that parents can afford childcare so they
can return to the workforce.
It is my
hope that the TANF reauthorization bill will be able
to pass in both the House and the Senate this year.
We must not let petty disputes get in the way of
passing legislation that could positively and
significantly impact the lives of many Americans.
This program provides a vital safety net that works
to support lower-income Americans and it’s time that
these programs had a blueprint for the future. |
