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Education is the path through which welfare recipients will truly find long-term, well-paying, permanent employment. Only education and training will give welfare recipients the skills they need to move permanently to a life of self-sufficiency. Unfortunately, H.R. 4737 greatly reduces the states' discretion to allow welfare recipients to get education and training
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That is why I am supporting a substitute that will allow states to combine successful ``work first'' initiatives with education and training. The substitute will give states credit when they move individuals from welfare to private-sector jobs, rather than giving them an incentive to create government ``make work'' programs.
H.R. 4600 imposes an unfunded mandate on the states to the tune of $11 billion--$67 million for the state of Kansas alone. Kansas is currently facing a budget crisis and its leaders are cutting services and raising taxes as we speak just to balance next year's budget. An unfunded mandate of this magnitude could devastate the state budget. If we are going to raise the bar for the states, we must provide support so that states can reach the bar. As Secretary Schalansky notes in her letter, level funding for TANF is not sufficient to accomplish and sustain the goals of the TANF program. Furthermore, H.R. 4737 allocates funding for child care that barely keeps pace with inflation and does not begin to provide the funding necessary to provide the child care that the additional work hours will demand.
For these reasons, I am supporting a substitute that will provide an extra $11 billion for child care funding over five years to help states provide child care for working welfare recipients and provide an inflationary increase for the TANF block grant.
Finally, I have great concerns about the so-called ``superwaiver'' provisions of this legislation. Although I am pleased that the authors of H.R. 4737 decided to remove some of the most egregious provisions of the superwaiver, I am still concerned that the legislation will permit broad and unaccountable waivers of federal requirements in several programs, including the Food Stamp program, Workforce Investment Act, Adult Education, and the Child Care Development Fund. The states should be given the funds and flexibility they need to run a welfare program, and they should be accountable for the result. The substitute that I support includes no such broad waiver.
Mr. Speaker, the House should reject H.R. 4737 and approve the substitute. Our goal is to move welfare recipients to work and help people lift themselves out of poverty. The substitute gives the states the tools they need to achieve that goal.
KANSAS DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL
AND REHABILITATION SERVICES,
Topeka, KS, March 14, 2002.
Hon. DENNIS MOORE,
U.S. Representative, Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC.
DEAR REPRESENTATIVE MOORE: As you study the issues surrounding the reauthorization of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF ) program during this Congressional session, please keep in mind that it is the flexibility afforded the states by TANF that has allowed Kansas to develop programs and initiatives which promote adult self-sufficiency and strengthen families. As a result of this flexibility, Kansas has been able to:
Reduce the cash assistance caseload by 10,000 families since welfare reform began on October 1, 1996.
Help approximately 37,000 adults become employed and retain employment for a year or longer.
Provide cash assistance to approximately 9,030 adults and 22,465 children each month.
Create unique employment preparation strategies and support services for addressing the multiple employment barriers of many TANF recipients.
Provide innovative child care improvements, including an Early Head Start Program; an infant/toddler specialist in each of the sixteen child care resource and referral agencies; and an early care and education professional development initiative.
Integrate child welfare services and TANF to help more children remain in their own home or be returned to their homes more quickly.
On February 26, the Bush Administration introduced the outline of its TANF reauthorization proposal. Although the department supports the President's overall goals for the TANF program, we do not support all of his recommended changes to the program. His proposal to require all families to participate in work activities for 40 hours per week with 24 of those hours mandated to be in subsidized or unsubsidized work is especially problematic. Attached to this letter is a review of the department's position on the key provisions of the President's proposal. I hope you will consider the agency's position when these issues are debated and voted on in Congress.
The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant has been successful in getting families employed and off cash assistance. While much has been achieved, there is an unfinished agenda of welfare reform, one that involves on-going supports to low-income working families as well as one that seeks to remove the barriers for TANF recipients with multiple barriers to employment. The work of the TANF agency does not end when families exit the cash assistance caseload.
SRS supports continued emphasis on the work first approach which is appropriate and integral to continued success. The Department recognizes that the caseload is not homogeneous and some clients can move to work easily while others require more intense interventions. In order for employed clients to remain employed, to increase wages, and to seek and obtain new and better opportunities, the state's work must continue. In order to continue helping families be successful, it is important that the flexibility currently afforded to states be continued and federal funding levels for the program remain adequate. We need to stay the course to accomplish the goals of welfare reform.
If you have any questions about the President's proposal or other TANF reauthorization bills that are introduced, please feel free to contact me. I would like to keep you updated on how these proposals will affect the low income citizens of Kansas.
Sincerely,
Janet Schalansky,
Secretary.
Enclosure.
Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services
On February 26, 2002, the Bush Administration introduced the outline of its TANF reauthorization proposal, called Working Toward Independence. The administration indicates that child well-being is the overall goal of its plan. The plan also incorporates fatherhood and the formation and maintenance of healthy two-parent married families into the fourth purpose of the TANF program. Main components of the President's reauthorization proposal include the following:
Mandates More Stringent Work Requirements. The President's proposal requires that all families engage in constructive activities leading to self-sufficiency for 40 hours per week, at least 24 hours of which must be in unsubsidized or subsidized work, on-the-job training, supervised work experience or supervised community service. Kansas does not support this change. There is overwhelming evidence from states that persons now receiving TANF cash assistance have significant barriers to employment, such as mental illness, IQ's below 75, domestic violence etc. Until these barriers are overcome or accommodated, it is unrealistic to require TANF recipients to work 24 hours per week. Many of the current TANF recipients will always struggle to find and keep even part time jobs in a competitive work environment. States will have to start-up or expand subsidized work, on the job training (OJT), supervised work experience and community service in order to meet the 24 hour per week work requirement. According to recent press releases states will also have to continue paying minimum wage for work experience or community service jobs. The result of these proposals will require increased expenses not funded in the Bush plan. Funding cuts in other TANF services, such as post employment services that assist the working poor to retain or advance in their jobs, will likely be the result. Additionally, employers do not hire employees for twenty-four hour per week jobs. They generally hire for either 20 hours per week or 40 hours per week. The TANF program has been successful due to the design flexibility given states to develop programs tailored to the needs of their recipients. The Department believes the more stringent work requirement is counterproductive and unnecessary to achieving the purposes of the TANF program.
Increases Work Participation Rates. Under the Bush proposal, the state will be required to have 70 percent of its adults participating in 40 hours a week of constructive activities leading to self-sufficiency, 24 of which must be actual work, by the year 2007. There will no longer be a caseload reduction credit or a separate two-parent participation rate. Under the work participation requirements of the current TANF law, Kansas has 86 percent of its families participating 30 hours per week, and 60 percent participating 40 hours per week. Kansas would support the proposed participation rate change only if the 24/40 hour work requirement explained above is removed. Should the Bush plan be passed as is, the state will have to choose between requiring recipients, who may not be ready, to work for 24 hours a week knowing they will fail; or placing them in the right activities and accepting a penalty for failure to meet the participation rate requirement. The right activities might include remedial education, learning disability accommodation training, substance abuse, mental health or domestic violence counseling, or basic job skills training. The penalty for not meeting the work participation requirement would be a loss of $5.095 million in federal funds and a requirement to make up the loss with state funds for a total penalty of $10.19 million. In lieu of the 24 hour work requirement of the Bush plan, Kansas supports retention of the current law which designates that 20 hours of participation must be in primary activities, which include work, on the job training, work experience, and job readiness activities.
Requires universal engagement of all TANF families. States will be required to engage all families in work and other constructive activities leading to self-sufficiency. Within 60 days each family must have a self-sufficiency plan for pursuing their maximum degree of self sufficiency. The family's progress must be monitored. Kansas supports this requirement as we currently develop and
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Retains the Current Five Year Time Limit and 20 Percent Exemption Limit. The Department supports retention of these provisions. The five year time limit has been a good motivational tool for those recipients who are capable of working. Continuation of the twenty percent exemption will allow persons with documented hardship conditions to receive assistance past the 60 month limit.
Maintains TANF and Child Care Funding Levels. The President's proposal maintains the current level of funding for both the TANF and Child Care programs with no indexing of grants for inflation. Level funding will not be sufficient to accomplish and sustain the goals of the TANF program for the following reasons: Families now receiving cash assistance face serious work, family, and social barriers which they must overcome before becoming successfully employed. These services are expensive and far exceed the expenditures for cash grants. Working poor families continue to need support services, such as child care, transportation, tools, uniforms and other work related items, long after cash assistance eligibility ends, to retain work, advance in their jobs, and improve their prospects to become self-sufficient. As states transform TANF from cash assistance to work supports, a larger clientele becomes eligible for these benefits. With the additional participation requirements placed on states by the Bush proposal, Kansas will not be able to continue funding all needed child care services. For example, expanding the participation requirement to 24/40 will cost $1.89 million more for child care each year if the parent and child are apart during all of the participation activities. If new work requirements are mandated for TANF , federal child care funding must be increased as well. In Kansas, the cash assistance caseload has increased due to the weakened economy. This trend puts Kansas and other states in a difficult financial position as the increasing demands for cash assistance make it difficult to continue providing the child care, diversion benefits, state income tax credits, and job and transportation assistance to the working poor who are no longer receiving cash assistance. Unless TANF and child care funding levels remain adequate, states will be forced to choose between reducing work support services and turning away some of the neediest families. Kansas, therefore, supports indexing the block grants for inflation and providing increased funding for additional federal mandates. Kansas also supports the continuation of the states' Maintenance of Effort (MOE) requirement as it exists in the current law.
Restores Supplemental and Contingency Funds, Allows for Rainy Day Funds, and Restores Ability to Transfer 10 Percent of TANF Grant to Social Services Block Grant. Although these provisions will be of no help to Kansas, they will greatly benefit some states. Kansas does not have the low rates of unemployment or poverty required to benefit from the supplemental or contingency funds and does not have any carry-over funds to benefit from the rainy day allowance. Since all TANF funds are now obligated, transferring additional TANF funds to the Social Services Block Grant would require cuts to TANF services. Kansas supports restored federal funding of the Social Services Block Grant.
Discontinues State Program Waivers. The Bush administration proposes to discontinue TANF program waivers granted prior to the 1996 welfare reform legislation. Kansas does not support this recommendations. Kansas has received much national recognition for the programs it has developed to address learning disabilities, substance abuse, and domestic violence. The state has been able to accomplish this because of its waiver which allows all participation in job readiness activities to count toward meeting the state's work participation rate. With the administration's proposal to discontinue current waivers, impose a new 24/40 work participation requirement, and limit full time rehabilitative and substance abuse treatment to 3 months out of each 24 months, Kansas will be forced to drop the successful programs described above, or fail the work participation requirement and accept a financial penalty. Kansas does support removing the limitation that exists in current TANF law of not allowing more than 6 weeks of job readiness activities (only 4 of which may be consecutive). The family, social and work barriers faced by TANF recipients require much more than 6 weeks of job readiness activities to resolve.
Promotes Child Well-Being and Health Marriages. The Bush plan includes enhanced funding for research, demonstrations, technical assistance, and matching grants to states. An increased focus on marriage and child well-being will be added to both the purposes of the program and the state plan requirements. This approach is designed to provide states with greater resources to pursue these goals while maintaining flexibility so that states can design programs that work.
Encourages Abstinence and Prevention of Teen Pregnancy. The administration's goal for federal policy is to emphasize abstinence as the only certain way to avoid both unintended pregnancies and STDs. Although the scientific evaluation funded by Congress to study the effectiveness of abstinence-only programs will not be completed until 2003, the administration proposes refunding the Abstinence Education program at the same level as in 1996 and retaining its strong definition of how funds may be spent. The administration also proposes increasing funding for community-based abstinence education grants by 83 percent to $73 million in 2003, including funding for comprehensive evaluations of abstinence education programs. While the government's evaluation of abstinence education programs has not yet been completed, many independent evaluations have found that abstinence-only programs are ineffective in reducing unintended pregnancies, including teen pregnancies, and STD's. Because comprehensive programs which include both abstinence education and birth control information have been found to be the most effective, especially if they have a youth development focus, Kansas does not support dedicating funds exclusively to abstinence education. If the goal is to reduce out-of-wedlock births, teen pregnancies, STD's, and deaths from AIDS and Hepatitis, then states should be allowed the flexibility to develop the programs that work best in reaching the youth and adults in their states.
Focuses More on Program Performance. States will be required to set performance standards in their state plans for addressing each purpose of the TANF program, to annually update their progress in meeting their goals, and to provide data to HHS to allow federal oversight of the program. The Secretary of HHS will annually rank all states in the order of their performance on indicators measuring employment, retention, and wage increase. The administration will establish a $100 million a year bonus to regard employment achievement. Each state will have numerical targets to strive for and will compete against their performance in the previous year. All states could be eligible for a bonus in any given year if their performance meets established targets. Kansas supports this bonus plan which is superior to the current bonuses measuring high performance and reduction of out-of-wedlock births. The state plan requirements, however, will be more stringent and intrusive, and thus is not supported. More authority is given to HHS for oversight in the approval process, which will hinder state flexibility.
Enhances Child Support Enforcement Strategies. The administration's proposal continues rigorous enforcement of child support obligations while targeting additional child support collections to the families with greatest need by: Providing federal matching for states to provide or improve a pass through of child support to families that receive TANF ; giving states the option of providing families that have left TANF the full amount of child support collected on their behalf with federal sharing of the costs; collecting a $25 annual user fee from families that have never received welfare; lowering the threshold for passport denial to $2,500; and expanding the federal offset program to allow states to collect past-due child support by withholding a limited amount of Social Security Disability Insurance payments from appropriate beneficiaries if benefits exceed $760 per month. Kansas supports these proposals if they remain options to the state.
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