[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 96 (Thursday, July 1, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8090-S8092]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. AKAKA (for himself, Mr. Moynihan, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. 
        Wellstone, Mrs. Murray, and Mr. Lautenberg):
  S. 1317. A bill to reauthorize the Welfare-to-Work program to provide 
additional resources and flexibility to improve the administration of 
the program; to the Committee on Finance.


                   welfare-to-work amendments of 1999

  Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, I rise to introduce a bill that would 
continue a program vital to helping welfare recipients who face the 
greatest barriers to finding and securing employment, called the 
Welfare-to-Work Amendments of 1999. My bill targets resources to 
families and communities with the greatest need, simplifies eligibility 
criteria for participation, and helps non-custodial parents get jobs to 
enable them to make child support payments. It also opens more 
resources to Native Americans, the homeless, those with disabilities or 
substance abuse problems, and victims of domestic violence. This is 
similar to a proposal unveiled by the Clinton Administration earlier 
this year and introduced as H.R. 1482 by Representative Benjamin Cardin 
of Maryland. I would also like to thank my colleagues Senators 
Moynihan, Feinstein, Wellstone, Murray, and Lautenberg for joining me 
as original cosponsors of my bill.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a letter which I received 
from the Secretary of Labor, Alexis Herman, be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the letter was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                           Secretary of Labor,

                                         Washington, July 1, 1999.
     Hon. Daniel K. Akaka,
     U.S. Senate,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Senator Akaka: I congratulate you on the introduction 
     of the ``Welfare-to-Work Amendments of 1999.'' I am pleased 
     that your legislation joins that introduced by Rep. Benjamin 
     Cardin earlier this year in the House in seeking to 
     accomplish the Administration's objectives in reauthorizing 
     the Welfare-to-Work (WtW) Grants Program. President Clinton 
     and I believe the Welfare-to-Work Grants Program is a key 
     component of the overall welfare reform effort. While welfare 
     caseloads have declined by nearly half over the last six 
     years, many individuals remaining on welfare are long-term 
     recipients who face significant barriers to employment. As 
     the President said in his April 10th radio address, ``We 
     can't finish the job of welfare reform without doing more to 
     help people who have the hardest time moving from welfare to 
     work--those who live in the poorest neighborhoods and have 
     the poorest job skills. That's why I call on Congress to pass 
     my plan to extend the Department of Labor's Welfare-to-Work 
     program.''
       This legislation incorporates the President's proposal to 
     extend the WtW Program, reflecting key suggestions the 
     Administration has received from State and local service 
     providers since the passage of the Balanced Budget Act of 
     1997. The WtW program funds job creation, job placement, and 
     job retention efforts to help long-term welfare recipients 
     and non-custodial parents move into lasting, unsubsidized 
     employment. In addition to helping long-term welfare 
     recipients make the transition from welfare to work, this 
     bill will help more low-income fathers increase their 
     employment and their involvement with their children. Demand 
     for WtW has been great. Last year, over 1,400 applicants from 
     local communities across the nation applied for more than $5 
     billion in WtW Competitive Grants, but DOL had sufficient 
     resources to fund less than 10 percent of these projects. In 
     addition, 44 states covering 95 percent of the welfare 
     caseload applied for formula funds. While the fundamental 
     principles and features of the program are maintained 
     (including the focus on work, targeting resources to 
     individuals and communities with the greatest need, and 
     administration through the locally administered, business-led 
     workforce investment system) we are also pleased to see the 
     principles of the original legislation further carried out by 
     the addition of the following enhancements:
       A simplification of eligibility criteria which continues to 
     focus on long-term welfare recipients but provides that at 
     least one, rather than two, specified barriers to employment 
     must be met.
       The provisions of even greater flexibility to serve those 
     with the greatest challenges to employment by the addition of 
     long-term welfare recipients who are victims of domestic 
     violence, individuals with disabilities, or homeless as 
     eligible to participate.
       A strong focus on the family by targeting at least 20 
     percent of the WtW Formula Grant funds to help noncustodial 
     parents (mainly fathers) with children who are on or have 
     exhausted Temporary Assistance to Needy Families fulfill 
     their responsibilities to their children by committing to 
     work and pay child support.
       An increase in the reserve for grants to Indian tribes from 
     the current 1 percent of the total to 3 percent, and an 
     authorization for Indian tribes to apply directly to the 
     Department of Labor for WtW Competitive Grants.
       A procedure which allows unallotted formula funds to be 
     used to award competitive grants in the subsequent year, 
     providing a preference in awarding these funds to those local 
     applicants and tribes from States that did not receive 
     formula grants.
       The development of streamlined reporting requirements 
     through the Department of Labor.
       The establishment of a one percent reserve of Fiscal Year 
     2000 funds for technical assistance which includes sharing of 
     innovative and promising practices and strategies for serving 
     noncustodial parents.
       In addition to the changes proposed by the Administration, 
     the legislation also provides for:
       The inclusion of children aging out of foster care as 
     eligible service recipients and
       The addition of job skills training and vocational 
     educational training.
       While our welfare reform efforts have resulted in some 
     important early successes, much remains to be done. 
     Reauthorizing the WtW program, together with the 
     Administration's proposals to provide welfare-to-work housing 
     vouchers, transportation funds, and employer tax credits, 
     will provide parents the tools they need to support their 
     children and succeed in the workforce. Your introduction of 
     the ``Welfare-to-Work Amendments of 1999'' provides 
     significant opportunities to hard-to-employ welfare 
     recipients to make the transition to stable employment and 
     assist noncustodial parents in making meaningful 
     contributions to their children's well-being. I applaud and 
     support your efforts.
       The Office of Management and Budget advises that it has no 
     objection to the transmittal of this report from the 
     standpoint of the Administration's program.
           Sincerely,
                                                 Alexis M. Herman.

  Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, I quote from that letter to me.

       President Clinton and I believe the Welfare-to-Work Grants 
     Program is a key component of the overall welfare reform 
     efforts.

  Mr. President, the Welfare-to-Work program has helped numerous 
welfare parents--both custodial and non-custodial--find and keep jobs 
that pay a living wage and allow them to fulfill basic obligations to 
their children. Children have fundamental needs for food, shelter, and 
clothing, yet many parents find themselves barely scraping by, in order 
to obtain these things. Many families are unable to go much beyond the 
essentials to enroll their children in sports and other activities that 
build strong bodies and social skills, or to provide them with decent 
school supplies, books or computers to develop strong minds. Most 
families take these things for granted because they live without the 
anxiety of wondering when the next paycheck or child support payment 
might be coming in. They have the finances to pay for child care to 
enable parents to work during the day. They have cars or other access 
to transportation that will take them to work every morning. Or they 
have a telephone so that they may receive calls for job interviews. The 
families that cannot make ends meet continue to live in dire need and 
find their children living at risk.
  Mr. President, 14.5 million American children live in poverty. 
Furthermore, as reported in Kids Count 1999, 32 percent of children do 
not live with two parents and 19 percent live in a home where the head 
of household is a high school dropout. Twenty-one percent of children 
are in families with incomes below the poverty line, 28 percent are 
living with a parent or parents lacking steady full-time employment, 
and 15 percent do not have health insurance. It is a shame that, in the 
most prosperous nation in the world, we continue to be faced with these 
dismal statistics for our children--young Americans who hold the 
promise of this country's future in their hands.
  Many of these children were helped when the Balanced Budget Act of 
1997 created the Welfare-to-Work program as a new system for providing 
assistance to welfare recipients most in need. This followed on the 
heels of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity 
Reconciliation Act of 1996, which replaced the Aid to Families with 
Dependent Children cash assistance program with the Temporary 
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.
  The 1996 welfare reform law addressed the bulk of the welfare 
population but lacked a component to help the hardest to employ welfare 
recipients. Thus, Welfare-to-Work was passed to assist this population 
find jobs and achieve independence so they no longer

[[Page S8091]]

would need public support. The Welfare-to-Work program became an 
essential component of the Administration's welfare reform effort by 
providing recipients with a good alternative to welfare.
  Since 1996, the number of people in the system dropped by a record 
number: forty percent from a peak of about five million families in 
1994 down to three million families as of June, 1998, according to the 
General Accounting Office. However, the job is not finished. Welfare-
to-Work is needed now more than ever because those remaining on the 
rolls are increasing likely to have multiple barriers to employment 
such as poor work experience, inadequate English or computer skills, or 
substance abuse problems.
  We need to invest much more to help these individuals reach self-
sufficiency than we did in those who have already left welfare-these 
individuals might have already had an educational record, special 
skills or significant family support behind them to help them to their 
feet. In contrast, Welfare-to-Work participants are the welfare 
recipients who need the most help. In addition, extending Welfare-to-
Work will become even more important when TANF recipients and their 
children reach welfare time limits in 19 states by year's end and have 
their benefits reduced or completely removed.
  These are the hard luck cases, Mr. President. These are the people 
who continue to be left out of the economic boom of the 1990s. And 
these are the people whom Welfare-to-Work was designed to help. If we 
let the program expire this year, even if states have three years from 
the date of award to spend their program funds, we will be saying to 
these people, ``We've forgotten the promises we made to you in 1996 
that we would continue to help you. Now, there is no more help for 
you.''
  This would be particularly harmful in my state of Hawaii which has 
struggled due to the Asian financial crisis and has been the only state 
where welfare rolls have increased. Welfare-to-Work has assisted many 
of Hawaii's welfare recipients through this period of financial 
hardship for the state by helping them find unsubsidized employment. 
The program must be extended so that it may help other recipients and 
their families in my beleaguered state.
  My bill not only extends the Welfare-to-Work program, but it also 
makes a number of important improvements to the program that states, 
counties, and cities have requested. Currently, most funds allocated to 
Welfare-to-Work state formula grants cannot be used because of 
eligibility criteria that are difficult to meet. Currently, an 
individual must have been receiving assistance for at least 30 months 
or must be within 12 months of reaching the maximum period for 
assistance. In addition, they must have two of three characteristics, 
including: lacks a high school diploma or GED and has low math or 
reading skills; has a poor work history; or requires substance abuse 
treatment for employment. These criteria have excluded many TANF 
applicants who, for instance, may have a GED or high school diploma but 
still cannot read; these criteria have proven unrealistic.

  Instead, under my bill, criteria would be changed to require 
participants to have one out of seven characteristics: lacks a high 
school diploma or GED; has English reading writing, or computer skills 
at or below the 8th grade level; has a poor work history; requires 
substance abuse treatment for employment; is homeless; has a 
disability; or is a victim of domestic violence. This revision in 
eligibility criteria would allow the program to better match the 
participant pool. It is necessary because current criteria have left 
more than 90 percent of Welfare-to-Work state formula grants unspent. 
In Hawaii alone, only 37 percent of our TANF recipients have been 
eligible to participate in the program, and this figure would double 
under my bill. Furthermore, officials of the Hawaii Department of Human 
Services which administers TANF and Welfare-to-Work in my state predict 
that unless the Federal law is changed, it is unlikely that they will 
be able to refer clients in sufficient numbers to meet WtW 
expectations. Similar situations exist in all states, and these 
criteria revisions respond to State and local entities that have been 
doing the work of Welfare-to-Work and want to serve as many 
participants as possible. In Texas, 21,000 people would be able to 
participate in the program, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. 
Under my bill, figures like this could be seen across the nation, and 
more people in need would be able to find employment.
  A related improvement contained in my bill is that it transfers any 
unallocated Welfare-to-Work formula grant funds into the competitive 
grant program. This competitive grant program has been tremendously 
popular.
  Out of the 1400 applications submitted requesting a total of $5 
billion, only 126 applications for $470 million in funds were awarded 
in FY 1998. This portion of Welfare-to-Work needs more funding. Under 
my bill, preference is given to grant applications submitted from 
states that did not receive a formula grant.
  Mr. President, my bill also provides a re-emphasis on the whole 
family. This past Father's Day, I had the opportunity to celebrate with 
several of my children and their families, as it was a day to celebrate 
and honor the family. However, many fathers were not as fortunate as 
myself and were not able to celebrate with their children because they 
went through divorce and did not receive custody of the children. Even 
worse, many of these fathers are dismissively labeled ``dead beat 
dads'' because they are not a presence in their children's lives and do 
not pay child support. What we have found, Mr. President, is that many 
of these fathers do not want to abandon their children. Rather, they 
are ``dead broke dads'' and face the same barriers to finding and 
holding employment that many welfare mothers do. This prevents them 
from fulfilling child support obligations, which many want to do. If 
these fathers can provide for their children, they will be more likely 
to see them more often. Hopefully, renewed financial and emotional 
involvement of fathers will mean that these children's lives will 
improve.
  For these non-custodial fathers, my bill will make it easier for them 
to participate in Welfare-to-Work. Currently, non-custodial parents 
face the same problems in attempting to qualify for Welfare-to-Work as 
other applicants because of the same overly-restrictive criteria. Under 
my bill, the eligibility requirements for non-custodial parents will be 
revised to allow them to demonstrate that they are unemployed, 
underemployed, or having difficulty paying child support payments. In 
addition, at least one of the following characteristics must apply to 
the minor child or non-custodial parent: the child or non-custodial 
parent has been on public assistance for over 30 months, or is within 
12 months of becoming ineligible for TANF due to a time limit; the 
child is receiving or eligible for TANF; the child has left TANF within 
the past year; or the child is receiving or is eligible for 
food stamps, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Medicaid, or the 
Children's Health Improvement Program (CHIP).

  The bill increases funding for non-custodial parents by requiring 
that at least 20 percent of state formula funds be used for this 
population. The bill also provides that a non-custodial parent will 
enter into an individual responsibility contract with the service 
provider and state agency to say that he or she will cooperate in the 
establishment of paternity and in the establishment or modification of 
a child support order, make regular child support payments, and find 
and hold a job. These revisions are an attempt to permit and encourage 
non-custodial parents to provide for their children, become more 
involved in their children's lives, and pursue better lives for 
themselves and their families.
  Mr. President, Native American communities will benefit from my bill 
from a doubling of the Native American set-aside from $15 million to 
$30 million. This funding increase in necessary because Native 
Americans currently receive one percent of the total Welfare-to-Work 
funds but serve 3.2 percent of total program participants, according to 
a recent U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Welfare-to-Work 
Evaluation. In recognition of their sovereignty, the bill also provides 
Native American tribes with flexibility in designing programs that are 
effective for their territories. It is a gross understatement to say 
that our Native

[[Page S8092]]

American communities have not had the chance to experience the economic 
success that our nation has been enjoying. We must do what we can to 
make up for this shortfall, fulfill our Federal responsibilities to 
Native Americans, and help families and children in Native American 
communities who face obstacles to self-sufficiency.
  Mr. President, children who leave foster care at age 18 make up 
another hard-to-help population that faces numerous barriers to 
employment. My bill introduces new support for these individuals when 
they attempt to start out on their own by allowing them to take 
advantage of Welfare-to-Work programs. According to DOL, 20,000 
children leave foster care annually. Of these, 32 to 40 percent receive 
some type of government assistance within the first 18 months after 
leaving the foster care system. This bill provides funds to help them 
find alternatives to welfare as they leave their state care system.

  My bill simplifies Welfare-to-Work reporting requirements so that the 
program can be evaluated effectively. This evaluation will allow 
Congress and DOL access to better statistics on how the program is 
performing nationwide. In addition, one-percent of the funds are 
provided for technical assistance so that DOL can ensure cooperation 
between states, local governments, TANF and child support agencies, and 
community-based organizations so that all are able to work together and 
be better able to provide services to those who are in need.
  Finally, the bill eases Welfare-to-Work's ``work first'' requirements 
that mean that TANF recipients must find jobs first, before they are 
able to take advantage of stand-alone programs such as job training, 
basic education or vocational education programs. My bill would 
designate these as allowable work activities under Welfare-to-Work. 
This change is in response to requests from states who want to use 
program funds to better prepare recipients for the workforce before 
sending them off to a job. This approach seeks to improve TANF 
recipients' chances at maintaining steady employment.
  Although my colleagues may have disagreed on welfare reform in the 
past, Welfare-to-Work is a program that all should be able to support. 
It represents a Federal-state-local partnership, as well as a 
partnership between government, private industry, and community-based 
organizations. It encourages people to take responsibility for 
themselves, find work, and contribute to their families and society in 
a meaningful way. We cannot abandon these welfare recipients who are 
the most difficult to employ and must instead invest in them in a way 
that will help them find jobs paying a living wage, become self-
sufficient, and allow them to break out of the cycle of dependency on 
public assistance.
  I would again like to thank my colleagues Senators Moynihan, 
Feinstein, Wellstone, Murray, and Lautenberg for joining me as original 
cosponsors of my bill, and I urge other colleagues to join us in 
supporting this important Welfare-to-Work reauthorization bill.
                                 ______