Legislative Advocacy for TANF Reform

¶ … Legislative Advocacy Introduction and Coalition Building H.R. 890 is bill to prohibit the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from granting a waiver relating to compliance with the work requirements of the provision of Welfare. The most recent bill title is: Preserving the Welfare Work Requirement and TANF Extension Act of 2013. I stand in opposition to this bill and provide a detailed basis for my position in the following discussion. In brief, my support for the action taken by the U.S.

Department of Health and Human Services is derived from endorsements that more effective ways to meet TANF goals are and can be developed and effectively implemented, and that much of the current legislation derives from a deeply ingrained suspicion of the poor and of needy families that this nation must outgrow in order to be truly innovative and effectively achieve the honorable objective of TANF. Background of HB 890.

The catalyst for this bill was an Information Memorandum issued on July 12, 2012 by HHS to the state-level welfare plan administrators about the waiver considerations and expenditure authority under Section 1115 that address the mandatory work requirements of Section 407.[footnoteRef:1] In consideration of the present labor and economic situation in the United States, HHS rightly put forth the idea that new methods and approaches for addressing the long-term unemployment issues of Welfare recipients need to be explored.

Specifically, the memorandum language that has been most politically inflammatory are as follows: "is encouraging states to consider new, more effective ways to meet the goals of TANF, particularly helping parents successfully to prepare for, find, and retain employment." The underlying purpose of the waivers from TANF requirements is to improve the employment outcomes of needy families, through testing innovative alternative strategies, policies, and procedures directed at accomplishing this goal.

Through the Section 1115 waiver authority, compliance waivers of Section 407 would provide opportunity for states to define work activities and work engagement differently, specify different limitation and verification procedures, and calculate participation rates accordingly. Conservatives object to these waivers from the standpoint that any dilution of the mandatory employment requirements of the provisions will directly result in dilution of personal responsibility.

[1: Memorandum from Earl Johnson, Director, Office of Family Assistance, to States administering the TANF Program and other interested parties (July 12, 2012), at 1, available at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ofa/policy/im-ofa/2012/im201203/im201203.html.] HHS is employing Section 1115 of the Social Security Act as a provision granting authority to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to "consider and approve experimental, pilot, or demonstration projects which, in the Secretary's judgment, are likely to assist in promoting the objectives of Title IV-A," under section 402 of the Social Security Act sufficient to enable implementation of project that has been approved.

The purposes of Part A are clearly important to the overarching strategies of improving outcomes to needy families, specifically call for flexibility of the states in operating programs, and are sufficiently on target to warrant listing here: "(1) Provide assistance to needy families so that children may be cared for in their own homes or in the homes of relatives; (2) end the dependence of needy parents on government benefits by promoting job preparation, work, and marriage; (3) prevent and reduce the incidence of out-of-wedlock pregnancies and establish annual numerical goals for preventing and reducing the incidence of these pregnancies; and (4) encourage the formation and maintenance of two-parent families" (Social Security Act, Title VI-A).

Agency affiliations and coalition building. The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is a logical agency to affiliate with those opposing this legislation as efforts to promote entry, advancement, and retention of employment are a key concern of this organization. Moreover, ACF is focused on increasing access to jobs that with sufficient advancement opportunity, and earnings potential to enable needy families to establish independence from government benefits.

As a federal agency, ACF may be hidebound, which means that professional affiliations would need to engage participants with sufficient vision, innovative where-with-all, and political clout to circumvent or overcome the agencies' conventional practice. Utilizing federally funded grants, universities regularly develop model programs in areas such as education and healthcare. Naysayers often argue against such programs, citing established program failures as evidence against innovative programs -- a position that is not rational or logical, and that typically does not have any empirical support.

For example, programs that train community healthcare workers have proven to be astonishingly effective in settings where conventional healthcare can't seem to get a foothold. These practices rely on the layers of medical providers having confidence in the native community healthcare workers, a hurdle that had be overcome by medical policy makers and providers in order to establish and implement the demonstration project. Section Two: Op-ed and Gimmick Op-Ed.

A substantive problem with the current policies and practices regarding the mandatory work requirements of TANF is that they are like a box designed to constrain behavior. Funds for childcare are inadequate and provisions for childcare are inflexible. Job training does not include training in entrepreneurship, yet employment and post-graduation data clearly indicate the strong contributions of small business and entrepreneurial start-ups to patterns of new employment.

More than ever, the Department of Health and Human Services must exercise its authority to pursue innovative and alternative approaches to effectively achieve TANF objectives. Demonstration model programs are a clear path to devising strategies that are attuned to the economic and labor realities workers and prospective workers experience today. The Use of Gimmick to Gain Attention from Legislators. Reflecting the box that TANF recipients are forced into while attempting to train for, find, or create gainful employment with living wages to support their families.

Boxes that can be unfolded and constructed through tab-insertion and creased folds will be flat mailed to legislators. Cardboard silhouettes of typical family members can be placed in the boxes. Each family member will be imprinted with some restriction that is part of current legislation pertaining to TANF. Each of the outsides of the six sides of the box will be printed with some example of how the current legislation works against TANF recipients in their efforts to become viable members of the workforce.

Each of the insides of the six sides of the box would be printed with ideas for model programs that have been shown to be effective, on a smaller scale, at addressing the TANF objectives. The gimmick is likely to be effective as.