| For Immediate
Release: |
Contact
Info: |
| 3/10/2002 |
Tyler Prell or Jason
Dring, (202) 518-8047 |
BUSH ADMINISTRATION WELFARE
REAUTHORIZATION PLAN
WELFARE IN WONDERLAND
WASHINGTON, DC - The Bush
Administrations will today release its recommendations
for Congressional reauthorization of the legislation
known as welfare reform. Deepak
Bhargava, Director of the National Campaign for Jobs and
Income Support and Chief Organizer of the
Make TANF Work! campaign, reacted to
the proposal:
"The Bush welfare reauthorization proposal runs
counter to everything we have learned in the past five
years about what helps poor families survive. The plan
calls for a massive increase in the number of people
required to work, an unrealistic proposal in the best
of economic times, but truly bizarre in the middle of
a recession. It represents a huge step backwards.
"The Bush welfare reauthorization plan exposes a
huge gulf between the administration and moderate
Members of Congress in both parties, not to mention
the Governors. The National Governors Association
proposal would expand what counts as work and efforts
are underway by a number of moderate Republican House
and Senate members to lift the caps on the percentage
of caseloads that can be engaged in education and
training. The Bush plan clearly turns its back on
moderates.
"A tenor of hypocrisy permeates much of the Bush
plan. For example, the Administration supports
devolution of welfare administration to the states on
one hand, and yet proposes immense and prescriptive
new Federal requirements on the other. This hypocrisy
obliterates the notion of 'state flexibility.' Far
from giving states more power to put welfare
recipients into education and training programs, this
proposal does exactly the opposite. By jacking up the
work participation requirement and increasing the
required work week, President Bush completely ignores
the reality of a slack low-wage job market," said
Bhargava.
"The proposal also turns its back on immigrants.
One in five poor children in America lives in an
immigrant headed household. Immigrants pay taxes, work
hard and are eligible to serve in the military. They
should have equal access to benefits."
The National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support
(NCJIS), a project of the Center for Community Change,
is a coalition of more than 1000 grassroots anti-poverty
groups that has been organizing since 2000 to transform
TANF into a meaningful anti-poverty program. Under the
banner Make TANF Work! (http://www.maketanfwork.org/),
the National Campaign is spearheading a national effort
to fashion a progressive policy and political strategy
on welfare reform.
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