WASHINGTON (April 25) – Sen. John Breaux (D-La.), chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Social Security and Family Policy, held a welfare reauthorization hearing today to highlight circumstances that make some Americans difficult to employ and the proven strategies to increase employment among hard-to-employ Temporary Assistance to Needy Family (TANF) recipients.

"In 1996 we fundamentally changed the way welfare works by imposing work requirements to get poor families off of welfare and into good jobs," said Sen. Breaux. "This law has proven an overwhelming success – reducing welfare caseloads by more than 50 percent – it must now be updated and improved."

A significant percentage of TANF recipients have one or more characteristics that make them extremely difficult to employ. These factors can include mental or physical impairments, a child with a disability, limited English proficiency, low education, substance abuse or domestic violence in the home. It is estimated that as many as 64 percent of TANF recipients have more than one of these barriers to employment.

Sen. Breaux said that new proposals to increase work requirements for individuals on cash assistance should focus on teaching hard-to-employ welfare recipients the skills needed to get and keep a job.

Louisiana has the highest high school dropout rate and one of the highest rates of adult illiteracy in the nation. Many adults on cash assistance must spend significant amounts of time learning to read, and Sen. Breaux believes basic adult education classes should "count" toward the fulfillment of their work requirement. In addition, Sen. Breaux supports replacing the caseload reduction credit with an employment credit to give states an incentive not just to remove individuals from cash assistance, but to get them a job.

"As we undertake the reauthorization of this landmark legislation, Congress must pay particular attention to those who remain on welfare, those with undiagnosed learning disorders, illiteracy, mental disorders or substance abuse problems," Sen. Breaux said. "Welfare reauthorization must be flexible and innovative to successfully move more Americans from welfare into work."

Sen. Breaux has been working this year with a bipartisan group of senators to improve federal programs that help working families make ends meet, including legislative provisions to expand fatherhood efforts, child support, earned income tax credits, social service block grants and child care tax credits. This is Sen. Breaux's second subcommittee hearing on welfare reauthorization.