[Budget of the United States Government]
[V. Preparing For the 21st Century]
[4. Supporting Working Families]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
4. SUPPORTING WORKING FAMILIES
----------------------------------------------------------------------
More and more parents of young children are in the workplace, either because they're single parent households,
or because both parents have to work to make ends meet, or because both parents choose to work and they ought to
have that choice.
But there is no more important responsibility . . . than making sure every American can balance the dual
responsibilities succeeding as parents and succeeding at work. There is no more significant challenge.
President Clinton
January 1998
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In the final year of this century, the fruits of the President's hard
work on the economy are evident throughout the Nation, with higher
wages, lower interest rates, and unemployment at almost record lows. For
much of the country, this wave of prosperity has provided new
opportunity. There have been benefits for many, for the college graduate
starting a career, as well as the long-term welfare recipient taking a
first job. But we still have more work to do to ensure that this
economic boom provides equal advantages to all. And for working parents,
many of whom have benefitted from the opportunities of this growing
economy, there are also strains as they try to balance the twin demands
of work and family. The President remains committed to helping working
families, as well as those who are low-income and at-risk of falling
into dependency, so that they too can enter the next century with
justified optimism.
The Administration will continue efforts to address the needs of
these Americans--to build a foundation that encourages and supports work
and responsibility. The President believes that a central challenge we
face at the dawn of the 21st Century is to help the growing number of
working parents with young children meet their responsibilities and
succeed both at work and at home.
The Administration has already taken significant steps in this
direction, with a major expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit, a new
child credit, a boost in the minimum wage, expansions of Head Start,
after school programs and child care centers, and significantly
increased participation in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program
for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). In 1996, the President signed the
historic Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act
(PRWORA), reforming the Nation's welfare system into one that requires
and rewards work and responsibility, provides increased flexibility to
States to administer work-focused welfare programs, expands funds for
child care, and strengthens child support enforcement provisions.
Meanwhile, the economy has created almost 18 million new jobs in the
past six years, increasing the number of working families, and providing
new opportunities for those leaving welfare.
By proposing and working to enact the Family and Medical Leave Act,
the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and the
Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), this Administration has
enabled parents to respond to illness in the family without running the
risk of job loss, to change jobs without forfeiting their health
insurance, and to secure health insurance for their children when they
could not otherwise afford it.
But there are still key areas in which working families need more
help, especially in finding safe and affordable child care. Last year,
the President proposed a major child care initiative, with new grants
and tax credits for working families. His agenda was clear: to ensure
that low- and middle-
[[Page 76]]
income parents could afford to purchase child care, and to ensure that
their children entered school ready to learn. Regrettably, despite the
need for these measures, Congress only took action on a small part of
this proposal. Because the President remains committed to helping
parents meet the twin demands of work and family, he will propose a
comparable Child Care Initiative for 2000.
In addition, the President will propose measures to help groups of
low-income and at-risk individuals--homeless and runaway youth, older
foster care children, legal immigrants, families moving from welfare to
work, and battered women and their children. The budget will assist over
100,000 runaways and foster care youth in their efforts to become self-
sufficient, expand and strengthen the network of battered women's
shelters, strengthen early intervention by the educational system for
disabled children, provide employment assistance to non-custodial
parents of children on welfare, and support an array of critical
services to thousands of low-income families through the Social Services
Block Grant.
Expanding Child Care
In 1999, the Administration obtained $173 million to help States
improve the quality of child care, $10 million for child care research,
and an increase of $160 million for the Education Department's after-
school/summer school program. The budget proposes a full range of
further increases and new policies to increase spending and tax
incentives by $3.6 billion over 1999 (see Table 4-1).
The Child Care Initiative
More Affordable Child Care: The President proposes to make child care
more affordable by expanding the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit for
middle-income families with child care costs and for parents who stay
home with their young children, providing tax credits for businesses to
expand their child care resources, assisting parents who want to attend
college meet their child care needs, and increasing funds with which the
Child Care and Development Fund can help more poor and near-poor
children.
Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (DCTC): The DCTC Credit helps
around 5.5 million families cover their child care costs each year. The
budget proposes to expand the credit so that it offers more help for
families with incomes below $59,000. The budget also proposes further
expansion of this tax credit to help parents stay home to raise a young
child. These two proposals would provide tax credits worth $6.3 billion
over five years.
Tax credits for private employers: To make child care services more
widely available, the budget proposes $500 million in tax credits over
five years for private employers that expand or operate child care
facilities, train child care workers, contract with a child care
facility to provide child care services to employees, or provide child
care resource and referral services to employees.
Child Care and Development Fund: Federal child care funding has risen
by 80 percent under this Administration, providing child care services
for 1.25 million children from low-income working families or whose
parents are moving from welfare to work. The budget would increase funds
for the Child Care and Development Fund by $1.2 billion, to a total of
$4.5 billion in 2000, and by $7.5 billion over the next five years,
enabling the program to provide child care subsidies for 500,000 more
poor and near-poor children in 2000. These new funds, combined with the
child care funds provided in welfare reform beginning in 1997, will
enable the program to serve 2.4 million children by 2004, an increase of
over one million since 1997.
College campus-based child care: To help increase low-income parents'
access to higher education, the budget includes $5 million for the new
Child Care Access Means Parents in School program to establish and
support child care services on college campuses. States may also use a
share of the Child Care and Development Fund for this purpose.
Exclusion of employer contributions for child care expenses: Under
current law, parents can exclude up to $5,000 of employer-provided child
care expenses from their taxable income and Social Security earnings.
The exclusion
[[Page 77]]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Table 4-1. THE BUDGET SUPPORTS A $3.6 BILLION INCREASE IN RESOURCES FOR
CHILD CARE, 27 PERCENT OVER 1999
(Budget authority, dollar amounts in millions)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dollar Percent
1999 2000 Change: Change:
Estimate Proposed 1999 to 1999 to
2000 2000
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spending:
Discretionary and Mandatory
Budget Authority:
Child Care, including $183
million increase for
quality activities and
research \1\............... 3,167 3,550 +383 +12%
Child Care Supplement...... ........ 1,155 +1,155 NA
Head Start................. 4,660 5,267 +607 +13%
Early Learning Fund........ ........ 600 +600 NA
21st Century Community
Learning Centers........... 200 600 +400 +200%
Special Education.......... 5,334 5,450 +116 +2%
College Campus-Based Child
Care....................... ........ 5 +5 NA
Child Care Apprenticeship
Program.................... 4 5 +1 +25%
Developmental Disabilities
Special Projects, State
Support Systems............ 4 4 ........ *
---------------------------------------
Total Spending.............. 13,369 16,636 +3,267 +24%
New Tax Expenditures:
Expansion of Child and
Dependent Care Tax Credit,
Including Assistance to Stay-
At-Home Parents \2\.......... ........ 338 +338 NA
Tax Credits to Private
Employers.................... ........ 40 +40 NA
---------------------------------------
Total Tax Expenditures...... ........ 378 +378 NA
---------------------------------------
Total..................... 13,369 17,014 +3,645 +27%
------------------------------------------------------------------------
NA = Not applicable.
* Less than 0.5 percent
\1\ Includes discretionary Child Care and Development Block Grant and
mandatory Child Care Entitlement to States.
\2\ Includes elimination of household maintenance test.
will provide nearly $8 billion in benefits over five years.----------
Helping meet the cost of raising a child: The Child Credit, which the
President proposed and Congress enacted as part of the 1997 Taxpayer
Relief Act, helps working parents raise their children by providing $500
per child for all children under age 17. The credit, which will provide
nearly $93 billion in tax benefits over the next five years, will help
26 million families with over 40 million children.
New Emphasis on Early Learning: The budget provides new funds to
improve the safety and well-being of young children, including the new
Early Learning Fund that grew out of the White House Conference on Early
Childhood Development and Learning and continued expansion of the highly
successful Head Start program.
Early Learning Fund: The Early Learning Fund responds to the
scientific research presented at the White House Conference on Early
Child Development and Learning in April 1997, indicating that a child's
experiences in the first three years of life profoundly affect his or
her brain development. The budget proposes $3 billion over five years
for the Fund, which would provide grants to communities for activities
that improve early childhood education and the quality
[[Page 78]]
and safety of child care for children under five years old. For example,
the money can fund innovative efforts to meet the developmental needs of
children, with a focus on language development, emergent literacy, and
other child development activities aimed at improving readiness for
school. Resources could also fund parent education in child development,
home visits, and efforts to help child care centers become accredited
and reduce child-to-staff ratios in child care.
Head Start: Head Start, one of the President's highest priorities, is
America's premier early childhood development program. It supports
working families by helping parents get involved in their children's
educational lives and providing services to the entire family. Since
1993, the President has worked with Congress to increase annual Head
Start funding by 68 percent. In 1999, Head Start will serve 835,000 low-
income children, including up to 38,000 children under age three in the
Early Head Start component that the President launched in 1995. The
budget proposes to expand Head Start funding by $607 million in 2000 and
add 35,000 Head Start pre-school slots and 7,000 Early Head Start slots.
The Administration intends to increase participation by underrepresented
groups in specifically targeted areas with recent influxes of immigrants
and limited English proficient children, including seasonal farmworkers.
The proposed increase invests in program quality improvement measures
and makes further progress toward the President's goal of enrolling a
million children in Head Start by 2002, including doubling the number of
infants and toddlers in Early Head Start.
School-Age Care and Improved Educational Achievement: The President
proposed, and Congress agreed in 1999, to expand 21st Century Community
Learning Centers to enable 1,700 schools to open their doors before and
after the traditional school day and in the summer. Instead of returning
to empty houses, or playing on unsafe streets, a quarter of a million
children will participate in safe, drug-free programs that combine
learning, enrichment, and recreational activities. The budget proposes
to triple funding for this program to $600 million, reaching nearly
7,500 schools, as part of a comprehensive approach to help fix failing
schools and help end social promotion the way successful schools do it--
without harming the children. Under the President's proposal, school
districts with comprehensive policies in place to end social promotion
will receive priority in the grant-making process. After-school and
summer school programs are a critical tool in ending social promotion
because they give students who are not on track an opportunity to get
extra help so they can meet promotion standards.
Safety and Quality in Child Care: The President and Congress worked
together to pass legislation to improve the safety of children by making
it easier for States to conduct background checks on child care workers
and to provide new funds for child care quality activities in 2000.
National crime prevention and privacy compact: Congress recently
passed legislation, based on a proposal from the White House Conference
on Child Care, to help build a new electronic information sharing
partnership among Federal and State law enforcement. This legislation
makes background checks on child care providers (and other non-criminal
justice checks) more efficient and accurate by eliminating some of the
barriers that have made it difficult for States to share information
about the criminal backgrounds of job seekers.
Increasing investments in child care quality: In response to the
President's request, Congress provided an increase for 2000 of $173
million for child care quality activities, in addition to the nearly
$132 million that will already be available for these activities in
2000. States invest these dollars in improving child care quality
through activities such as resource and referral for parents,
scholarships and training for child care providers, monitoring and
inspection of providers, networks for family day care providers, and
linkages with Head Start, to name a few.
Services for Families of Children with Disabilities: Children with
disabilities and their families face a broad range of obstacles to
achieving educational success. Ensuring that the educational needs of
the youngest children with disabilities are fully met is critical to the
Administration. (For a discussion of the Administration's work
incentives initia
[[Page 79]]
tive for disabled individuals, see Chapter 3, ``Investing in Education
and Training.'')
Special Education: The budget proposes $5.4 billion for special
education, including an increase over last year's budget of $116 million
targeted toward improving educational results for children with
disabilities through early intervention. These new funds provide a $50
million initiative to help schools implement research-based practices to
serve children with disabilities in the primary grades. The budget also
provides increases of $28 million for Preschool Grants and $20 million
to the Infants and Families program.
Families of Children with Disabilities: The budget continues a $4
million program proposed last year by the President and funded by
Congress to help the families of children with disabilities. This
program provides grants to States to expand and modify their State-wide
support systems to help these families address such problems as
inadequate child care options, missed job training and job
opportunities, the loss of medical assistance, and teen pregnancy.
Research on Childhood Development and Child Care: Research on child
care, and dissemination of its findings, is critical to support State
and local policy makers in their decision-making about child care and to
help parents learn how to evaluate and where to find quality child care.
At the President's request, Congress has already provided $10 million
for a new Research and Evaluation Fund in 2000, which will provide
consumer education, parent hotlines, and research activities to expand
our knowledge of good policies and practices, including the types of
child care settings, parent activities, and provider training that most
benefit the early development of children.
Promoting Self-Sufficiency
Supporting Children Leaving Foster Care: An estimated 20,000 children
leave foster care each year having reached the age of 18 without being
adopted or finding another permanent relationship. These youth are
troubled. Studies that examined former foster youth two to four years
after leaving care found that only half had completed high school, less
than half were employed and only about 40 percent had held a job for one
year or more. One-fourth had been homeless at least one night, 60
percent of the females had given birth, and fewer than one-in-five were
completely self-supporting.
The budget provides a four-part program to support children leaving
the foster care system:
Independent living. This program provides services to assist
current and former foster children ages 16 to 21 who are
making the transition to independence by earning a high school
degree or participating in vocational or other training. The
budget provides $105 million, a 50-percent increase over the
1999 level, which has been unchanged since 1992.
Comprehensive residential transition assistance. The budget
provides a new capped mandatory program of competitive grants
for States to support living expenses of youth in these
programs who otherwise lose such support at age 18 or under
other circumstances. The new program is funded in 2000 at $5
million, increasing to $20 million by 2003.
Transitional living grants. This program provides shelter and
services to homeless youth ages 16 to 21. The budget increases
funding to $20 million, an increase of $5 million over 1999.
Medicaid coverage. Medicaid coverage for children receiving
foster care assistance generally ends at age 18. The lack of
health insurance limits their ability to make a successful
transition out of foster care. The budget gives States the
option of covering these children up to age 21.
Curtailing Violence Against Women: Since 1993, funding for services to
victims of domestic and sexual violence has grown by nearly $400 million
and the passage of the Violence Against Women Act of 1995 expanded the
Government's role in supporting services and providing scientific
knowledge to prevent and treat violence against women. The budget
proposes an increase of $26 million to further strengthen and increase
the availability of battered women's shelters and counseling services,
increase culturally appropriate services in under-served populations,
and expand resources for research and prevention activities
[[Page 80]]
aimed at changing the social norms that allow this violence to occur.
These new funds will allow programs addressing violence against women to
serve an additional 40,000 women, children, and perpetrators.
Restoring Equity in Benefits for Legal Immigrants
The President believes that legal immigrants should have the same
opportunity, and bear the same responsibility, as other members of
society. Upon signing the 1996 welfare law, he pledged to work toward
reversing the harsh, unnecessary cuts in benefits to legal immigrants
that were unrelated to the goal of moving people from welfare to work.
As part of the 1997 Balanced Budget Act (BBA), the President worked with
Congress to restore Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) to
hundreds of thousands of disabled and elderly legal immigrants. The next
year, the Noncitizens' Benefit Clarification and Other Technical
Amendments Act restored eligibility to additional legal immigrants. In
response to the Administration's request, last year's Agricultural
Research Bill restored food stamp benefits to 225,000 elderly, disabled,
and other needy immigrants, including 70,000 children who lawfully
resided in the United States as of August 22, 1996.
As a result of the 1996 law, however, many legal immigrants, including
disabled individuals and families with children, are not eligible for
health and disability benefits. The budget provides $1.1 billion over
five years to let States provide health care to legal immigrant
children, to restore SSI eligibility to legal immigrants with
disabilities, and to restore Food Stamp eligibility to certain aged
immigrants. The SSI and related Medicaid benefits in the budget that
apply to immigrants who entered the country after August 1996, and
became disabled thereafter, would only start after five years of
residence.
Health Care: As described in Chapter 5, the budget would let States
provide health coverage to legal immigrant children and pregnant women
under Medicaid and, in the case of children, CHIP. Currently, States can
provide health coverage to legal immigrants who entered the country
before the welfare law was enacted. But, immigrants who entered after
the law was enacted cannot get benefits for five years. Under these
proposals, States could provide health coverage to those children and
pregnant women through Medicaid or through CHIP.
Supplemental Security Income (SSI): The budget would provide
approximately $925 million over five years to restore SSI and related
Medicaid to legal immigrants who entered the country after August 22,
1996, lived in the United States for more than five years and became
disabled after entry. Currently, only legal immigrants who entered the
country before August 22, 1996 can be found eligible for SSI disability
benefits.
Food Stamps: The budget provides $60 million over five years to ensure
that legal immigrants in the United States as of August 22, 1996, are
eligible for food stamp benefits once they reach age 65.
Continuing Support for Working Families
The Child Care Initiative, the restoration of benefits to legal
immigrants, and expanded efforts to assist low-income families, at-risk
youth and victims of domestic or sexual violence in attaining self-
sufficiency, all build on a strong base of support for at-risk and
working families, a priority area in which the President's work with
Congress has achieved significant results in the past five years. That
support includes a broad array of tax incentives to encourage and
support work as well as legislation to, among other things, enable
workers to care for a newborn and fulfill other family responsibilities;
raise the minimum wage; reduce welfare caseloads by nearly four million,
enable workers to retain their health insurance; and provide health
insurance to up to five million uninsured children. (For the broader
discussion of the health care expansions, see Chapter 5, ``Strengthening
Health Care.'')
Support Through the Tax System: Over the last five years, the
Administration has worked with Congress to expand the number and size of
tax incentives to encourage work and support working families (see Table
4-2).
Tax incentives for work: The budget proposes to extend, through June
30, 2000, the Welfare-to-Work Tax Credit, which the President
[[Page 81]]
and Congress created as part of the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997. It
focuses on those who most need help--long-term welfare recipients--by
letting employers claim a tax credit on the first $10,000 a year of
wages that they pay, for up to two years, for workers they hire who were
long-term welfare recipients. The credit is 35 percent on the first
year's wages, rising to 50 percent on the second year's wages. In
addition, the budget would extend through June 30, 2000, the Work
Opportunity Tax Credit, which provides a credit of 40 percent on the
first $6,000 of wages paid to members of eight more target groups.
Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC): The Federal Government is committed
to helping those who work to meet the cost of raising their children.
The EITC helps to meet this goal by supplementing the earnings of
working families. In his 1993 economic program, the President proposed
and Congress enacted legislation to substantially expand the credit,
helping 15 million low-income working families. The Administration
remains committed to ensuring that this program is managed fairly and
accurately. The Administration is currently implementing a series of
EITC error-reduction initiatives, including the provisions enacted in
the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997. The EITC will provide $167 billion of
tax benefits over the next five years to low-income working families.
Helping Families Move from Welfare to Work: The President has led
successful efforts to remove obstacles that have hindered families
trying to make a successful transition from welfare to self-sufficiency.
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF): The President signed
the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act
(PRWORA) in 1996, and States have refocused their welfare systems to
support work. Welfare caseloads have fallen by over four million since
President Clinton signed the welfare reform law, and by well over 40
percent since he took office. Recent data from the Census Bureau's
Current Population Survey show large increases in the rate of employment
both for individuals on welfare and those leaving welfare. The
Administration is proposing to replace the current TANF contingency fund
with one that could more effectively respond to State needs in the event
of an economic downturn.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Table 4-2. THE BUDGET INCLUDES $286 BILLION OVER FIVE YEARS IN SUPPORT FOR FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN THROUGH THE
TAX SYSTEM \1\
(In millions of dollars)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Estimate
1998 ------------------------------------------------------ Total
Actual 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 1999-2004
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tax Expenditures
Existing Law:
Earned Income Tax Credit 2, 3....... 28,928 30,734 31,222 32,172 33,258 34,374 35,576 166,602
Child Tax Credit \2\............... 3,525 19,155 19,253 18,926 18,643 18,198 17,580 92,600
Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit 2,485 2,455 2,425 2,395 2,365 2,340 2,310 11,835
Exclusion of Employer Contributions
for Child Care Expenses............ 1,325 1,385 1,445 1,510 1,575 1,645 1,715 7,890
Proposed Legislation:
Expand Child and Dependent Care Tax
Credit, Including Assistance to
Stay-At-Home Parents \4\........... ....... ....... 338 1,585 1,425 1,471 1,503 6,322
Tax Credits for Private Employers... ....... ....... 40 84 114 131 140 509
Simplify Foster Care Definition
under EITC......................... ....... ....... -2 -42 -44 -46 -47 -181
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total............................. 36,263 53,729 54,721 56,630 57,336 58,113 57,777 285,577
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Does not include interaction effects between provisions.
\2\ Includes tax expenditures and effect on outlays.
\3\ Excludes credit for workers who do not live with children.
\3\ Includes elimination of household maintenance test.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[[Page 82]]
Welfare-to-Work (WtW) Grants: Because of the President's leadership,
the 1997 Balanced Budget Act included $3 billion requested by the
President for a new Welfare-to-Work grants program. WtW provides grants
to States and local communities to help long-term, hard-to-employ
welfare recipients, and certain non-custodial parents, secure lasting,
unsubsidized employment. Funds are used for job creation, job placement,
job retention, and other post-employment support services. The budget
proposes $1 billion more for this program in 2000.
Welfare-to-Work Transportation: One of the biggest barriers facing
people who move from welfare to work--in cities and in rural areas--is
finding transportation to get to jobs, training programs and child care
centers. The President's leadership on this issue helped secure funding
through 2003 to assist States and localities in developing flexible
transportation alternatives, such as van services, for welfare
recipients and other low income workers. The budget proposes $150
million for this program in 2000.
Welfare-to-Work Housing Vouchers: In his 1999 budget, the President
proposed $283 million for 50,000 new housing vouchers for welfare
recipients who need housing assistance to get or keep a job, and
Congress approved full funding for this new initiative. Families will
use these housing vouchers to move closer to a new job, to reduce a long
commute, or to secure more stable housing to eliminate emergencies that
keep them from getting to work every day on time. The budget proposes
$144 million for an additional 25,000 vouchers, bringing the total
number of welfare-to-work vouchers to 75,000 in 2000.
Individual Development Accounts: Since 1992, President Clinton has
supported the creation of Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) to
empower individuals to save for a first home, post-secondary education,
or to start a new business. The President signed into law last year
legislation providing $10 million to get the program off the ground. The
budget provides $20 million for IDAs.
Social Services Block Grant: The President's Budget proposes to fund
the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) at its fully authorized level of
$2,380 million, increasing funding levels by $471 million over last
year. SSBG provides funding to States to support a wide range of
programs including child protection and child welfare, child care, and
services focused on the needs of the elderly and the disabled. The
inherent flexibility of this grant permits States to target funds to
meet the specific needs in their communities. The Administration will
work with the States to improve reporting and accountability for
services provided with these funds.
Continued Nutrition Assistance for Infants and Children: The
Administration has continued to target resources to infants and
children. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants
and Children (WIC), for example, reached nearly 7.4 million persons each
month in 1998 and the budget proposes $4.1 billion to serve 7.5 million
people through 2000, fulfilling the President's goal of full
participation in WIC. (See Chapter 5, Strengthening Health Care, for
more information on WIC.)
Increasing Parental Responsibility Through Child Support Enforcement:
The President's campaign to ensure that parents support their children
is working. In 1997, the number of paternities established rose to
nearly 1.3 million, and child support collections have gone up 80
percent since the President took office, to an estimated $14.4 billion
in 1998. In 1998, net Federal costs for child support enforcement were
$1.2 billion.
The budget will build on this success by helping Federal authorities
investigate child support cases and prosecute more parents who fail to
meet their responsibilities. The budget provides $34 million over five
years to fund an eightfold increase in U.S. Attorney legal support staff
dedicated to child support, and additional funds in 2000 to support the
Department of Health and Human Services' establishment of regional task
forces to investigate and refer cases for prosecution. To improve the
child support program's effectiveness and cost efficiency, the budget
also conforms the match-rate for paternity testing with the lower
administrative match-rate; repeals the guarantee to States of their 1995
level of collections; and starting in 2001, requires States to review
support orders for families receiving
[[Page 83]]
TANF every three years. Net Federal savings of these proposals total
$409 million over five years.
Shortly after the Administration concludes on-going consultations with
stakeholders in April 1999, it will submit a proposal to Congress and
work on a bipartisan basis to enact child support financing legislation
based on the following five principles: 1) maximize collections and
support for all families in the program, including the hardest to serve;
2) maximize paternity establishment, financial and medical support
establishment, collections on current support and on arrears, and cost
efficiency; 3) give priority to increasing payments to families, while
ensuring Federal budget cost neutrality; 4) create incentives for
adequate State and local investment of staff and resources needed for
improved program performance; and 5) promote national standards and ease
of interstate case processing, while maintaining State flexibility.
Better Benefits in the Workplace: The President has led successful
efforts to ensure a living wage for all American workers while expanding
their ability to care for their families and protect their health care
benefits.
Family and Medical Leave (FMLA): In early 1993, the President
proposed, and Congress enacted, the Family and Medical Leave Act, which
allows workers to take up to 12 weeks of job-protected, unpaid leave to
care for a newborn or adopted child, attend to their own serious health
needs, or care for a seriously ill parent, child, or spouse--making it
less likely that employees will have to choose between work and family.
The budget proposes expanding FMLA to reach workers in firms with over
25 employees, expanding coverage to 10 million more workers. In
addition, the budget proposes providing resources to the Department of
Labor to research: (1) the impact this law has had on the American
family; and (2) how to make leave accessible and affordable for more of
America's working families.
Ensuring equal pay: The budget proposes a $14 million equal pay
initiative to focus additional resources to provide employers with the
necessary tools to assess and improve their pay policies and to educate
the public on the importance of this issue as well as their rights and
responsibilities. (See Chapter 9, ``Building One America'', for
additional information on this initiative.)
Minimum wage: In 1996, the President successfully sought a minimum
wage increase that gave a big financial boost to full-time, full-year
minimum wage workers, raising the pay of each by approximately $1,800 a
year. In February 1998, the President proposed to further raise the
minimum wage to $6.15 an hour by the year 2000. Increasing the minimum
wage by one dollar in two equal steps simply restores the real value of
the minimum wage to what it was in 1981. This increase will help ensure
that as costs continue to increase parents who work hard and play by the
rules can bring up their children out of poverty. The President remains
strongly committed to increasing the minimum wage and will work with
Congress to ensure the enactment of this vital increase.
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act: Working with
Congress, the President in 1996 obtained landmark legislation, known as
HIPAA, which provides important health insurance protections for an
estimated 25 million Americans who move from one job to another each
year, as well as those who are self-employed or who have pre-existing
medical conditions. HIPAA reformed the private insurance market to
ensure that workers have portable health benefits and insurers are less
able to deny coverage due to pre-existing conditions. Combined with the
Taxpayer Relief Act, HIPAA also made it easier for self-employed persons
to get health insurance.