[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 44 (Thursday, March 29, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Page S3148]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                WORK OPPORTUNITY IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 2001

  Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, it is with great pleasure that I join my 
colleague and friend, Senator Jeffords to introduce S. 626, the Work 
Opportunity Improvement Act of 2001. This legislation would permanently 
extend the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, WOTC, and the Welfare-to-Work, 
W-t-W, tax credit. The measure would also modify WOTC's eligibility 
criteria to help those receiving food stamps qualify for the credit.
  Over the past 5 years these tax credits have played an integral part 
in helping a million and a half of America's working poor transition 
into the work force. WOTC was enacted in September of 1996, and W-t-W a 
year later, in order to provide employers with the financial resources 
they would need to recruit, hire, and retain individuals who have 
significant barriers to work. Traditionally, employers have been 
resistant to hiring those coming off the welfare rolls not only because 
they tended to be less educated and have little work place experience, 
but also because welfare dependency fosters self esteem problems which 
need to be surmounted. But these hiring tax incentives have clearly 
demonstrated that employers can be enticed to overcome their natural 
resistance to hiring less skilled, economically dependent individuals 
provided they are supplied adequate financial incentives. No other 
hiring tax incentive or training program has been nearly as successful 
as WOTC and W-t-W in encouraging employers to change their hiring 
practices.
  A vibrant public-private partnership has developed over the past 5 
years where-by government has provided the incentives and program 
administration support required to induce employers to participate. 
Employers have responded by changing their hiring practices. Many 
employers have established outreach and recruitment programs to target 
eligible individuals. States have made these programs more employer-
friendly by continually improving the way they are administered. But 
time and again, we hear from both employers and the State job services, 
which administer the programs, that the continued uncertainty 
surrounding short-term extensions impedes expanded participation and 
improvements in program administration. A permanent extension would 
induce many of the employers now participating to expand their 
recruitment efforts and encourage the States to commit more time and 
effort to perfecting their administration of the program. This in turn 
would mean that even more individuals would be helped to transition 
from welfare dependency to work. Precisely because these programs have 
proven to be such successes over the past 5 years that we believe they 
should be made permanent.
  In addition to making the WOTC and W-t-W programs permanent, our 
legislation would improve the WOTC program by increasing the age 
ceiling in the food stamp category from age 21 to age 51. This would 
greatly improve the job prospects for many absentee fathers and other 
vulnerable males who are less likely to qualify under other categories. 
Making absentee fathers eligible for the WOTC credits would provide 
employers with the incentive to hire them and in so doing provide them 
with the sense of personal responsibility and community involvement 
that are essential first steps to their assuming their responsibility 
as parents.
  We urge our colleagues to join us in cosponsoring this important 
legislation to permanently extend the Work Opportunity Tax Credit and 
Welfare-to-Work tax credit programs.

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