[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 132 (Tuesday, September 16, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H7603-H7605]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PRESERVING WELFARE FOR NEEDS NOT WEED ACT
Mr. REICHERT. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 4137) to prohibit assistance provided under the program of
block grants to States for temporary assistance for needy families from
being accessed through the use of an electronic benefit transfer card
at any store that offers marijuana for sale.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 4137
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Preserving Welfare for Needs
Not Weed Act''.
SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON USE OF ELECTRONIC BENEFIT TRANSFER
CARD TO ACCESS TANF ASSISTANCE AT ANY STORE
THAT OFFERS MARIJUANA FOR SALE.
(a) Prohibition.--Section 408(a)(12)(A) of the Social
Security Act (42 U.S.C. 608(a)(12)(A)) is amended--
(1) by striking ``or'' at the end of clause (ii);
(2) by striking the period at the end of clause (iii) and
inserting ``; or''; and
(3) by adding at the end the following:
``(iv) any establishment that offers marihuana (as defined
in section 102(16) of the Controlled Substances Act) for
sale.''.
(b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by subsection (a)
shall take effect on the date that is 2 years after the date
of the enactment of this Act.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Washington (Mr. Reichert) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Levin)
each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Washington.
General Leave
Mr. REICHERT. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks
and to include extraneous material on the subject of the bill under
consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Washington?
There was no objection.
Mr. REICHERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge support of H.R. 4137, the
Preserving Welfare for Needs Not Weed Act.
Federal welfare benefits are an important means for many individuals
and families to get critical assistance for basic necessities until
they get back on their feet.
Shockingly, as a result of recent State laws legalizing recreational
marijuana in Colorado and also in my home State of Washington, we are
seeing new abuses of these benefits. In these States, a person can walk
into one of the newly opened pot shops and use their welfare benefit
card to pay for pot.
These are Federal tax dollars meant for basic necessities and,
instead, they are being used to purchase something that is illegal
under Federal law. It is exactly this misuse of tax dollars that this
bill is designed to stop.
This bill, which I introduced earlier this year as chairman of the
Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources--the subcommittee with
jurisdiction over the program that we are talking about tonight and
that is being abused--will block access to welfare cash in stores
selling marijuana.
Mr. Speaker, I know firsthand the struggles that families can go
through during my hard times from my own childhood growing up, and from
what I witnessed as a law enforcement professional for 33 years. From
the time I was a cop on the street in King County Washington through my
days as the sheriff there, I witnessed how too often a lack of a job,
living in a crime-ridden neighborhood, and using drugs tore families
apart.
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In some ways, things have even gotten worse today. For instance, we
had millions of long-term unemployed struggling to get back to work
during the so-called Obama recovery.
To make ends meet, many turned to benefits like TANF, which is the
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. The TANF program provides
millions of low-income Americans temporary assistance to help adults
transition to work and support their children while they are doing
that. TANF is a flexible grant to States, but it also includes rules to
ensure that our tax dollars are being spent appropriately.
Sadly, a disturbing number of people were spending welfare benefits
in liquor stores, casinos, and even strip clubs. In 2012, Congress
passed a law that required States to block welfare benefits from being
accessed in those places, and President Obama, rightly, signed it into
law.
Since then, both Washington State and Colorado have legalized
marijuana, opening up a new loophole--the ``pot shop loophole,'' as I
call it--which the bill before us would close, along with the other
shops that I mentioned before that are already closed to the use of
your welfare benefit card, like liquor stores, casinos, and strip
clubs. This bill just adds ``pot shops'' to that list.
This isn't an idle concern. A report examining welfare transactions
in Colorado revealed over $5,000 in welfare benefits were accessed in
stores selling marijuana in the first month such stores were open. With
other States considering legislation to legalize
[[Page H7604]]
marijuana, it is important that we close this ``pot shop loophole'' now
before it expands.
This bill simply says that when it comes to spending welfare
benefits--money taxpayers provide to low-income parents to help support
their children--we are drawing a line. Taxpayer-funded welfare benefits
must be spent on children's and families' needs and not on weed.
I encourage all Members to support this simple commonsense fix so
that welfare funds are used as they were intended, to support the needs
of low-income families and children and not to support drug use.
This legislation builds on good policy this Chamber has already
crafted and passed in the last Congress. It has no cost, according to
the Congressional Budget Office, and, most importantly, Mr. Speaker, it
is the right thing to do.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
As mentioned, this bill is designed to prevent individuals from using
their TANF Electronic Benefit Transfer cards in establishments that
sell marijuana. This restriction would add to a current law on
prohibition of EBT transactions in casinos, liquor stores, and adult
entertainment clubs.
While it is important that benefits under TANF be used only to
support the basic needs of struggling families, I think it is
regrettable that this legislation is coming to the House floor without
any markup, hearings, or discussion within our committee.
Such discussions usually raise questions that are worth examining
before legislation is considered on the floor.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. REICHERT. Mr. Speaker, I would inquire of Mr. Levin as to whether
or not he has any speakers on his side.
Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I have one.
Mr. REICHERT. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. LEVIN. It is now my pleasure to yield 5 minutes to the gentleman
from Texas (Mr. Doggett), the ranking member of the Subcommittee on
Human Resources.
Mr. DOGGETT. I thank the gentleman.
Mr. Speaker, the Needs not Weeds Act is a pretty catchy title. I
think it could fit on a bumper sticker. In fact, perhaps it already
has.
Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, this proposal has only a little to do
with weeds and nothing whatsoever to do with the needs of our neighbors
who are trying to move out of poverty and into the middle class of
America, the people that are down there on the bottom economic rung
that are trying to climb up another rung or two. This Congress is
indifferent to their needs. You might say their hopes have just gone up
in smoke.
On the very day that we are considering this proposal, we are being
called upon by the same folks to approve a companion Republican
resolution that once again cuts resources for Temporary Assistance for
Needy Families, indeed, not one, but two cuts, a cut of $14 million
each year from the TANF contingency fund on which about a third of the
States have relied on for assistance in this recession to help people
find jobs and provide other services and an additional $15 billion cut
annually from TANF research funding.
Those are the dollars that permit us to determine whether our tax
dollars are being spent effectively in developing new approaches for
job training and other services.
You have got to wonder what these Republicans are smoking. How can
they tout their supposed commitment to preventing waste and, at the
same time, insist on eliminating the very dollars that are designed to
prevent waste and help us determine whether our tax dollars are being
spent efficiently and effectively?
From my experience in this Congress, I understand that facts will be
ignored by Republicans when they conflict with Republican ideology,
but, in this case, abandoning any research concerning how our tax
dollars are being spent makes no sense; indeed, it makes no dollars and
cents.
Mr. Speaker, these nearly $30 million in cuts continue the Republican
effort to reduce the real purchasing power and dollars available for
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. They follow a prior cut of
over $300 million in employment assistance and cash benefits through
the TANF program.
This is all amidst the growing inequality in this Nation. We have the
lowest level of poor families receiving direct cash assistance from
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families in almost 50 years. In my own
State of Texas, only about one in every 24 children receive TANF
assistance directly, and, when they get it, they don't get very much.
This is the 50th anniversary of Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty.
Isn't it time that we renew that effort in a meaningful, reformed way,
instead of waging war on those who are in poverty?
Time and time again, my Republican colleagues have refused to enact a
long-term reauthorization of the Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families program; instead, they favor these short-term extensions like
this 3-month extension that we are considering in the continuing
resolution.
Each of those short-term extensions offers them an opportunity to
stereotype the poor, the old welfare Cadillac image. Just blame the
poor for being poor.
I support every reasonable effort to reduce fraud and abuse. I don't
oppose this bill. What I oppose is dealing with the peripheral instead
of tackling the substantive problem of helping folks climb out of
poverty into the middle class.
As was mentioned, on one of these short-term TANF extensions, we
previously focused on prohibiting poor people from the evil of
withdrawing their funds from a strip club or casino. I supported that.
This one will prevent them from using their TANF cards at a place
that sells marijuana. Well, perhaps in December, when we are back on
the next extension, we can prohibit them from using their funds and
withdrawing them at a massage parlor or a Cadillac dealer or maybe with
the space aliens out in Area 51 in New Mexico.
I meet with these families. I have met with them in San Antonio,
Lockhart, San Marcos, and Austin. For the most part, they are
hardworking families. In many cases, they have hit a bad bump in the
road. Today's bill does nothing to address the tattered safety net that
we have in this country which is increasingly more hole than net.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentleman an additional 1 minute.
Mr. DOGGETT. Each year, we do less and less for those who struggle
while the gap continues to widen between those who have little or
nothing and those who are incredibly wealthy.
I believe that poverty should be viewed as a major national problem
that needs resolution by us working together, not a weapon to just
score more political points at election time.
I think the real poverty that is at stake this week is the poverty of
cooperation, the poverty of seeking a bipartisan answer to the
struggles of so many American families.
As long as this Congress ignores the hard work of developing
solutions to help those in our communities that are most disadvantaged,
we will have less as a Nation to celebrate.
Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
As the gentleman from Texas has just given his speech, I want to say
to him that I applaud what he has said. It is late. It is 9:30 at
night. It is hard to know who is listening, but the words expressed by
Mr. Doggett need to be heard.
In addition to the reduction in TANF funding, including for research,
I think we should also be reminded at this late hour that, because of
the unwillingness of Republicans in this U.S. House to follow the
bipartisan lead in the Senate, I think more than 3 million people who
lost their jobs through no fault of their own, who are looking for
work, have essentially been out in the cold.
{time} 2130
I guess some of them have applied for TANF. But when you look at the
data that Mr. Doggett has put forth, I think we need to take a look,
whatever is the hour of the day or night, at what has been happening in
terms of the addressing of poverty in this country. So I am glad we
have had this discussion.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
[[Page H7605]]
Mr. REICHERT. Mr. Speaker, after listening to my colleague's
comments, Mr. Doggett's a little earlier, there are a lot of things
that Mr. Doggett said that I agree with, and I know he knows that.
We have known each other for a while. He is the ranking member on the
Human Resources Subcommittee, and we have been working together on lots
of legislation that help address foster care and families and welfare
and food stamps and aid to needy families.
Those are things that he knows that I care about passionately. And I
know that the Republican party, even though tonight you may not think
so, cares about people passionately and wants to solve these issues to
help our most needy find employment, find an opportunity and hope in
this country to provide for their family. That is what both sides I
think really want.
As my colleague knows, we spent hours earlier today debating the
continuing resolution for 2015. That debate will continue tomorrow.
The reason we are not debating TANF reauthorization right now is
because the CR includes a provision that will extend the TANF program
at the Congressional Budget Office baseline level through December 11
of this year. So that bill, not the one before us, provides for the
extension of the program that the gentleman had earlier talked about.
I would also like to point out a letter that is dated July 31, 2014,
date stamped, to Senator Sessions from Secretary Burwell. And it says,
in just the first paragraph, Mr. Speaker:
Thank you for your letter to former Secretary Kathleen
Sebelius expressing concern that Temporary Assistance for
Needy Families cash assistance is being used to create an
increase in drug dependency. I am aware of the media reports
related to individuals withdrawing cash at Automated Teller
Machines (ATMs) located in establishments selling marijuana
in Colorado, which has legalized the use of marijuana. I
agree that any inappropriate expenditure of public funds is a
cause for concern and should be addressed immediately.
This is a commonsense fix so welfare funds are used as intended to
help needy families temporarily, to help them find jobs, get back on
their feet, provide for their families.
Mr. Speaker, I urge support, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Reichert) that the House suspend the
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 4137.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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