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ALERT YOUR MEMBER OF CONGRESS: HOUSE ACTION ON WELFARE REFORM

Action Needed:

We ask you to contact your Representatives in the House and ask them to cosponsor H.R. 4210, the "Working from Poverty to Promise Act of 2002. This is a bipartisan bill introduced by Rep. Marge Roukema (R-NJ) and Rep. John Tierney (D-MA). This bill significantly improves education and training options for welfare recipients so they can gain the skills necessary to help them move from public assistance to self-sufficiency.

This week the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources is marking up welfare reform legislation. They are expected to report out legislation that closely resembles the bill introduced by Rep. Wally Herger (R-CA), H.R. 4090, which reflects the plan released by the Bush Administration. Both of these proposals would severely limit education and training opportunities for TANF recipients by increasing work requirements to 40 hours per week and narrowing the number of activities that would count as work. Education and training would no longer count as work activities and would be limited to 3 months from the 12 months currently allowed under the law.

H.R. 4210 would dramatically increase education and training opportunities by: eliminating the current 30 percent cap on the state’s caseload that can be engaged in education and training; raising the limit on vocational education from 12 to 24 months, with an additional 24 months allowed for 16 hours of school per week; counting postsecondary education, participation in work-study and internships related to postsecondary education as allowable work activities; requiring states to assess their regional economies; identify areas with growth industries; and rewarding states for training and placing recipients in high-demand, higher wage jobs.

Support for the Roukema/Tierney measure is needed to influence TANF reauthorization as it moves through the House.

For more information, contact Angela Manso, Legislative Associate, amanso@aacc.nche