[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 54 (Tuesday, April 20, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E708]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         INTRODUCTION OF THE WELFARE TO WORK AMENDMENTS OF 1999

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENJAMIN L. CARDIN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 20, 1999

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. Speaker, to ensure the long-term success of welfare 
reform, we must confront two hard truths. First, as welfare rolls 
decline, those remaining on assistance are increasingly likely to be 
those who have multiple barriers to employment, such as low levels of 
education, language barriers, disabilities, and substance abuse 
problems. These barriers will require major investments to overcome--
certainly far greater resources than provided to many of those who have 
left welfare over the last few years. This issue becomes even more 
important when you consider that by the end of 1999, recipients and 
their children will have reached welfare time limits in 19 states. And 
second, the primary responsibility for raising low-income children is 
too often left solely to mothers. It is true the welfare reform law 
strengthened our Nation's child support enforcement system, but that 
does not address situations in which non-custodial fathers want to 
support their children but do not have a job. In short, our current 
programs and policies do not make a clear enough distinction between 
deadbeat dads and dead broke dads.
  To address these two critical issues, I rise today to introduce 
legislation to reauthorize the Welfare to Work program. The bill would 
provide $1 billion in FY 2000 to help long-term and hard-to-employ 
welfare recipients join the work force and to help non-custodial 
parents support their children. The legislation would extend the 
Welfare to Work (WtW) program established by the Balanced Budget Act of 
1997, which provided $1.5 billion a year in FY 1998 and FY 1999 for 
states and local communities to help move a long-term welfare 
recipients in high poverty areas into jobs and help them succeed in the 
work force.
  By providing greater flexibility to States and localities, the 
legislation would make substantial improvements to the original WtW 
program. The focus would continue to be on long-term recipients or the 
fathers of their children, but the program would be considerably 
simpler to operate. For example, under this proposal, eligible 
participants would be those which meet at least one, rather than two, 
barriers to employment. Furthermore, the list of barriers would be 
expanded to include with disabilities, those who are homeless, or those 
who have been victims of domestic violence. In addition, the first 
barrier listed in current law, which requires that the recipient not 
have a high school diploma and have low skills in reading or math would 
be split into two categories in order to serve those who gained a 
degree but whose low skills still form a major barrier to employment. 
And finally, the bill would allow States to offer vocational education 
to WtW participants and allow services to be provided to children aging 
out of the foster care system.
  Noncustodial fathers will also face simpler eligibility requirements, 
so long as they agree to establish paternity and to pay child support 
once they are employed. The importance of non-custodial fathers in 
children's lives is often forgotten, except when it is time to collect 
child support. The majority of children on welfare live with a single 
parent, and only about 20% of them receive child support from their 
noncustodial parent. The vast majority of these noncustodial parents 
are either unemployed or only able to obtain intermittent, low-wage 
employment. Assisting these fathers in finding and keeping employment 
and increasing their earnings is therefore critical to enhancing child 
support payments and to increasing their involvement in their 
children's lives. For these reasons, at least 20% of new formula funds 
would be targeted to noncustodial parents.
  Under this proposal, as under current law, about 75 percent of 
Welfare-to-Work funds will be allocated to States on a formula basis, 
with 85 percent of these funds passed through to local Private Industry 
Councils of Workforce Boards. The remaining 25 percent of the funds 
will continue to be awarded on a competitive basis by the Department of 
Labor to support innovative projects by a variety of private and public 
organizations.
  In 1998, the first year of the WtW program, 44 States, the District 
of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands received 
Welfare-to-Work formula grants. Approximately $368 million in 
competitive grants have also been awarded by the Department of Labor to 
126 grantees in communities throughout the country. A third round of 
competitive grants will be awarded in 1999, with high priority for 
applications which focus on recipients or noncustodial parents with 
limited English proficiency, disabilities, substance abuse problems, or 
a history of domestic violence. It is worth noting that there was only 
sufficient resources to fund one out of every ten applications for the 
first two rounds of the competitive grant program.
  In Baltimore, Maryland, part of which I represent in Congress, the 
City Office of Employment Development received a 1998 competitive grant 
of $3.3 million to provide comprehensive services to recipients and 
noncustodial fathers in public housing. Participants will work for 6 
months in supported jobs (while also getting life skills training), and 
then be placed in unsubsidized employment. Baltimore is also the 
headquarters for three major national efforts supported by $16.5 
million in Welfare-to-Work competitive funds. The efforts are managed 
by Marriot International, by Johns Hopkins University, and by the 
Enterprise Foundation. In each case, these nationally recognized 
organizations will be testing innovative, work-oriented strategies 
focused on job retention, skills development and career advancement.
  Mr. Speaker, the Welfare to Work program helps the hardest-to-employ 
welfare recipients make the transition to employment. I urge all of my 
colleagues to support this extension of the program to ensure the long-
term success of welfare reform not only in reducing dependency but also 
in reducing poverty.

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