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TESTIMONY: TOMMY G. THOMPSON, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICESPLACE: Testimony Before the House Education and Workforce Committee, Washington, D.C.DATE: April 9, 2002
Mr. Chairman, Congressman Miller, members of the Committee, I am honored to appear before you today to discuss the next phase of welfare reform.
Chairman Boehner, your bipartisan leadership of this Committee has rightly earned you high marks from all observers. And Congressman Miller, thank you for your years of leadership. I am confident we will work together to find common ground on the next phase of welfare reform.
Over the past five years, welfare reform has exceeded our most optimistic expectations. The 1996 law dramatically shifted national welfare policy by promoting work, encouraging personal responsibility, discouraging out-of-wedlock pregnancies and supporting marriage.
States were given unprecedented flexibility in the design and implementation of their welfare programs. Families were given the help they need to transition from welfare to work.
And underlying all of these changes, we restored an essential principle that had long been lost - that welfare assistance was designed to be temporary, to help families in crisis, and that dependence and poverty are not permanent conditions.
Welfare was fundamentally reformed. As a result, nearly seven million fewer people are on welfare today than in 1996. 2.8 million fewer children are in poverty. These things have occurred, in large part, because welfare has been and is being transformed.
TANF has moved millions of people from welfare to work. Employment among single mothers has grown to unprecedented levels. Child poverty rates are at their lowest level since 1979. Overall child poverty rates declined from 20.5 percent in 1996 to 16.1 percent in 2000.
During this same period, the poverty rate among African-American children declined from 39.9 percent to 30.6 percent - the lowest level on record. The poverty rate among Hispanic children declined from 40.3 percent to 28 percent - the largest four-year drop on record.
Yet much remains to be done, and states still face many challenges. Our proposal seeks $16.5 billion for block grants to States and Tribes and an additional $319 million each year for Supplemental Grants in order for states that have experienced high population growth and had historically low funding levels to achieve parity.
At the same time, we will continue the current "maintenance-of-effort" requirement to retain state contributions to assistance for children and families. We will reauthorize and improve the $2 billion Contingency Fund.
We will also restore, over five years, the policy permitting the transfer of up to 10 percent of TANF funds to the Social Services Block Grant, and we will seek to maximize self-sufficiency through work. First and foremost, states will be required to engage all TANF families headed by an adult in activities leading to self-sufficiency.
In addition to the requirement for universal engagement, we will increase the direct work requirement. Our proposal requires welfare recipients to engage in a 40 hour work-week, at least 24 hours of which must be in direct work, including employment, on the job training, and/or supervised work experience.
This is an important step, since 40 hours is the normal work period for all Americans, and we want the men and women who are transitioning from welfare to understand what will be demanded of them in the real world.
A full 16 of these 40 hours can be used for training and education, the very things that will equip former welfare recipients for success in their future.
In addition, we will allow substance abuse treatment, rehabilitation, or work-related training for up to 3 months within any 24-month period. And we will also gradually increase minimum participation rate requirements of five percent per year.
Our proposal embraces the needs of families by promoting child well-being and healthy marriages. To this end, we establish improving the well-being of children as the overarching purpose of TANF.
Child support is an equally critical component of the federal and state effort to promote family self- sufficiency. For the low-income families who receive child support, it makes up more than a quarter of the family budget.
Welfare reform has made a dramatic difference in child support collection. The good news is that the number of paternities established or acknowledged over the past five years has reached almost 1.6 million. In FY 2001, a record of nearly $19 billion in child support was collected, serving an estimated 17.4 million child support cases.
We are proposing to do even more. Our proposals are targeted to increase collections to families by nearly $1.1 billion over five years beginning in FY 2005.
All of that said, I know this committee's deep commitment to ensuring an adequate level of child care funding for children at risk. I appreciate the leadership you, Mr. Chairman, and the other members of the committee have shown in this area. In 1999, 20 million families in the U.S. had one or more children under the age of 13 with an employed mother. Thirty-two percent of these families were low-income.
For a number of reasons, including the high cost of child care, many of these families have difficulty finding care arrangements that they can afford. I can tell you from my experience as Governor of Wisconsin, access to child care assistance can make a critical difference in helping low income families to find and retain jobs.
Our proposal includes a total of $4.8 billion for the Child Care and Development Fund. When combined with TANF and other Federal funding sources, nearly $9 billion is available for child care and related services for children. Funding available through our child care programs and TANF transfers alone will provide child care assistance to an estimated 2.2 million children in FY 2003.
This is a significant increase over the number served just a few years ago. When children served by the Social Services Block Grant and TANF direct spending for child care are considered, an estimated one-half million additional children will be served in 2003.
Under the President's plan, states have significant flexibility to decide how child care funds will be used and what will be emphasized in achieving the overall goals of improving access to care and the quality of care.
Along with state flexibility, parental choice is a key element of a successful child care program. Families must be allowed to choose the care that best meets their needs, whether with a relative, neighbor, child care center, faith-based program, or after-school program.
In addition, we establish new state program integration waiver authority to permit states to further integrate a broad range of public assistance and workforce development programs in order to improve the effectiveness of these programs.
Broad flexibility to develop new strategies and approaches will be provided, enabling states to design fully integrated welfare and workforce development systems that could revolutionize service delivery.
Of course, the purposes of these programs must continue to be met. States will be required to identify the programs and activities for which waivers are requested, describe how the program purposes will be achieved, and show how the proposal will improve or enhance the achievement of these goals.
Mr. Chairman, the proposal I bring before you today contains several essential principles and proposals that flow from them. What binds them together is the desire to improve the lives of the families protected by America's social safety net. I look forward to working with you, Mr. Chairman, and the members of this Committee to that end.
I would be happy to answer any questions you have.
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