Mr. President, I rise, while we are debating the Budget Reconciliation bill, to talk about an important family issue that I raised during debate on the Emergency Supplemental bill in March. I want to voice my strong opposition to efforts by Members in the other body to use $6 billion in unspent welfare and health care funds, intended for low income children and their families, as a gimmick to overcome their problem with this year’s low budget caps.
Mr. President, I am referring to attempts to rescind $6 billion in unobligated Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF money, and unobligated Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Plan funds. I learned of this proposal after reading the July 28, 1999, New York Times, in which appeared a story entitled, “Leaders in House Covet States’ Unspent Welfare Money.” Why do they want to do this? To help fund the $792 billion tax cut proposal that the other body passed last week–a proposal that would mostly help the wealthy in our nation. Any such action would be a repudiation of our promise to help families living in poverty. It is a classic situation of reverse Robin Hood: robbing the poor to give more to the rich.
Mr. President, during debate on the welfare reform bill in 1996, states agreed to trade entitlement status under the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program for the assurance of a fixed, annual amount in the form of a block grant. Those of us who opposed the welfare bill for this and other reasons warned that it would be harder under a block grant to keep welfare funds from being cut. Now, certain members are turning our fears into reality. The cuts in this former entitlement program have begun. Cutting funds in this manner, Mr. President, would represent a betrayal of our promise to protect America’s poor families.
Again, as I explained in March, the term, "unobligated," may seem self-explanatory–that these are simply funds that have not been spent under TANF, Medicaid, or CHIP. Under TANF, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a combined total of $4.2 billion from fiscal years 1997, 1998 and 1999 is available. Some would point out that many poor families have worked their way to self-sufficiency and that welfare rolls have fallen by record numbers, as reasons why this money is not needed by states and remains unobligated. However, many states are relying heavily on these unobligated funds and have already committed them for a wide variety of uses. States need to distribute some of this funding to counties and local agencies, or to child care and social services activities. Governors are keeping "rainy day" funds for contingencies such as recessions or periods of stagnant growth–as we have now in my State of Hawaii–that force families back onto welfare and leave states without enough money until the next quarterly federal payment. States are also planning to use this money for fundamental or new, innovative expenses to help poor families become financially independent.
On July 23, the National Governors Association wrote to Congressmen John Porter and David Obey of the House Appropriations Committee, to plead their case. This letter is signed by Governors Thomas R. Carper of Delaware and Michael O. Leavitt or Utah, one Democrat and one Republican. The letter states, “Cutting funding for vital health and human services programs such as Medicaid, CHIP, TANF, and child support would adversely affect millions of Americans–with the greatest impact on children and the elderly in the greatest need. We reiterate our adamant and uniform opposition to these unprecedented cuts and to any proposal that would result in such drastic cuts to our most vulnerable citizens.”
I concur with the Governors’ sentiments about these valuable programs. Mr. President, I do this especially because the monies in question were originally designated to help our poorest children and their families. Instead, they would, over the next 10 years, go toward such things as estate tax relief and capital gains tax relief–tax benefits for the wealthiest taxpayers in the Nation.
Tax relief can be a good thing. However, it should not be the top priority when we face the urgent need to pay down our country’s debt and save Social Security and Medicare. I hope my colleagues agree with me on an issue that is important to many poor Americans. I hope funding is not taken out of TANF, Medicaid or CHIP, as a solution to low budget caps.
