[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 26 (Wednesday, February 12, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2353-S2355]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. ROCKEFELLER:
  S. 367. A bill to amend part A of title IV of the Social Security Act 
to reauthorize and improve the temporary assistance to needy families 
program, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Finance.
  Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, I am proud to re-introduce a bill 
that reauthorizes the landmark welfare reform legislation passed in 
1996. It is basically the same bill as I introduced in the last 
Congress and it is designed to allow States to continue the important 
work to promote work and personal responsibility. This reauthorization 
bill is designed to allow States to continue to provide the flexible 
initiatives that have reduced national welfare caseloads by over 50 
percent and moved millions of Americans from welfare to work.
  Welfare reform was a bold experiment to dramatically change a major 
social program. In 1996, Congress ended the entitlement of eligible 
families with children to cash aid. The results five years later are 
impressive. Over two-thirds of the people who are leaving the welfare 
rolls have left for work.
  Seven years ago, we agreed that the bipartisan goal of welfare reform 
should be to promote work and to protect children. We stood here 
together,

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on unchartered ground, and endorsed significant policy changes that we 
believed would help families gain independence and economic self-
sufficiency, while protecting the children. States began to revise 
welfare service delivery with guidance based on the new reforms. Each 
State designed and implemented programs that were unique and specific 
to their populations. While the results have been mixed, I believe that 
encouraging progress has been made. The challenge this year will be to 
continue to build on our foundation, and be sensitive to the current 
economic situation and the fiscal crisis States face today.
  When we started welfare reform, we had a strong economy. Now, States 
are struggling and most of their reserves are gone. I believe we can 
continue the progress of welfare reform, but I strongly believe we must 
provide the key investments that help welfare parents make a successful 
transition from welfare to work, including increasing child care 
funding.
  In West Virginia, welfare reform has brought bold changes. Parents on 
welfare get extra support as they face new responsibilities and 
obligations to make the transition from welfare to jobs. In 2001, I 
hosted a roundtable discussion to meet with individual West Virginians 
who were undergoing major life transitions. They told me that they were 
proud to be working, but that it was often still a struggle to make 
ends meet and do the best for their children. The goal of this 
legislation is to help those parents, and millions more, to promote the 
well-being of their children, even as they work.
  Today, I am introducing the Personal Responsibility and Work 
Opportunity Reconciliation Act Amendments of 2003. States need help to 
continue making progress. We should continue to build on this 
foundation, and not reduce state flexibility. It is essential that we 
continue welfare reform, not unravel it, or restructure it.
  This bill acknowledges that we must keep the focus on work, by both 
requiring and rewarding work. To ensure a real focus on helping parents 
leave welfare rolls for a job, this legislation gradually replaces the 
caseload reduction credit with an employment credit, designed by 
Senator Lincoln of Arkansas and Congressman Levin of Michigan. Under 
this important provision, States will only get a bonus toward their 
work participation requirement if parents move from welfare to a job. 
This credit will acknowledge the dignity of all work by providing a 
bonus for parents who get jobs, both full and part-time. A mother who 
has never worked in her life and then gets a part-time job has achieved 
a true accomplishment, and that deserves recognition. It is also the 
first step toward independence. It is an empowering approach to 
promoting work and sends the proper message to families who are 
striving to become self sufficient. I am pleased to incorporate their 
proposal into my bill, and I look forward to working with them closely 
throughout the welfare debates during this Congress to develop an 
employment credit that truly rewards work.
  At this point, with a soft economy, I believe it is unwise to 
significantly change State TANF programs to impose drastically higher 
work participation rates requiring 40 hours per week of work and 
activities. Such changes, as suggested by the Administration, would 
double the work requirement for mothers with children under the age of 
6, and that does not seem right. Increasing work requirement without 
new funding for child care, transportation, and job placement 
activities would be, plain and simple, an unfunded mandate. It could 
hinder state efforts to move parents into private sector jobs. It could 
undermine our progress.
  State officials have testified before the Finance Committee that such 
changes would force states to restructure existing programs that are 
working and turn their focus away from those who need some assistance 
with child care or transportation, but are no longer dependent on a 
welfare check. We should not cut back on necessary child care and work 
supports for working families who are following the rules we set in 
1996.
  This comprehensive welfare reform bill makes the right investments. 
It invests $5.5 billion more in child care, which is the amount 
supported by the Finance Committee in a bipartisan vote last June.
  This bill also increases funding for the basic TANF block grant by 
$2.5 billion because of state need. It provides full funding for the 
Social Services at $2.8 billion, which was promised to the states in 
1996. My bill also would expand and increase the supplemental grants to 
help the states with high growth and high poverty deal with the 
challenges of welfare reform. With these new investments, states will 
be able to increase investment in the fundamental work supports like 
child care, transportation, and training, that help a parent succeed in 
moving from welfare to work. States would have flexibility in 
allocating the new resources, but I believe much of the funding can and 
will be directed into child care, which is a major priority.
  This bill would continue the transitional Medicaid program so 
families can keep health care coverage for a year as they move from 
welfare to work. In 1996, I was proud to work with Senator Breaux and 
the late Senator John Chafee to protect access to health care for such 
vulnerable families. I have incorporated Senator Breaux's bipartisan 
bill to continue transitional Medicaid coverage, and I appreciate his 
leadership on this and other key issues. Our bill also gives states 
more flexibility and options to place parents in vocational training 
and English as a Second Language programs, so parents can get real 
jobs. In recognition of Maine's success with the Parents as Scholar 
program, States have the option to follow the Maine model for 5 percent 
of their caseload to combine work and education.

  The bill also invests $200 million to create BusinessLink Grants, 
competitive grants to support public and private partnerships to help 
parents get jobs. The Welfare-to-Work Partnership is just one example 
of how nonprofits working with business leaders can make a real 
difference. The Partnership includes over 20,000 businesses that have 
provided more than 1 million jobs to parents moving from welfare to 
work. I have met with the board members of this group, and we should 
encourage such partnerships. I know that other groups, like the 
Salvation Army and Good Will, are doing important work on providing 
transitional job opportunities, and these organizations would be 
eligible for grants as well.
  A job is the first step, but for welfare parents to make a successful 
transition to independence, they need a range of supports. To achieve 
this goal, the bill will create Pathways to Self-Sufficiency Grants to 
improve the support network for parents. These grants are intended to 
provide incentives and support to TANF caseworkers and nonprofit 
organizations to help improve the comprehensive network of supports for 
working families, including Medicaid, CHIP, child care, EITC, and a 
range of services. Working mothers deserve to know what type of support 
will be available so that they do not slip back into welfare.
  Work is fundamental, but we also need to be concerned about important 
aspects of the lives of families and children. This legislation creates 
a Family Formation Fund to encourage healthy families, reduce teenage 
pregnancy, and improve child support and participation of parents in 
children's lives. The bill seeks to end certain discrimination and 
harsh rules for two-parent families in the current system. If our goal 
is to support marriage, we should not penalize married couples.
  Our legislation also makes a simple, but important change. Under the 
current TANF program, each welfare parent has an Individual 
Responsibility Plan that serves as an assessment and work plan. In 
addition to having a responsibility to work, parents have a 
responsibility to protect their children's well-being. To emphasize 
this fundamental point, this bill adds language directing states to 
incorporate the concept of a child's well-being into each parent's 
Individual Responsibility Plan. States have great flexibility, but it 
is important to send a clear message that one of a parent's 
responsibilities is the well-being of their children.
  This legislation builds on the foundation of the 1996 Personal 
Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. My hope is that 
this framework will help promote bipartisan discussion about how we can 
make even more improvements in our welfare system,

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while maintaining our partnership with the States, particularly at this 
time of severe fiscal problems in our States.
                                 ______