Yesterday, two House committees pushed through a partisan resolution to overturn an Obama administration proposal providing states flexibility to move more Americans from welfare to work. Republicans have falsely claimed that the proposal weakens or eliminates the welfare reform law’s focus on work. Independent fact checkers and experts have discredited Republicans’ claims and these experts essentially all agree that they are false.
Despite the inflammatory rhetoric, House Republicans have voted numerous times to allow work requirements to be waived. In June, Republicans pushed through legislation that would open the door to gutting work requirements. And, according to a September 6, 2012 Congressional Research report, between 2002 and 2005, the Republican House passed legislation three times allowing a much broader waiver of federal work participation standards.
The fact remains that the current HHS waiver is narrower than these Republican waiver proposals, and has greater accountability for demonstrating improved employment outcomes.
By Dylan Matthews – September 13, 2012, 3:17 PM
…A new CRS report indicates that a Republican proposal that just passed the House Education and Workforce committee would undermine the work requirement. The bill is H.R. 4297: Workforce Investment Improvement Act of 2012, and it passed (pdf) the committee on a party-line vote in June, with all Republicans voting for and all Democrats voting against or abstaining…
This isn’t unprecedented. The Bush administration pushed for a welfare “superwaiver” that would allow states to waive just about every requirement, including the work requirement. “The superwaiver proposal passed the House three times: in 2002, 2003, and 2005,” CRS’ Gene Falk writes (pdf). “The legislation would have had the effect of allowing TANF work participation standards to be waived.” All three times the proposal was backed by Paul Ryan, John Boehner, Rob Portman and most other Republicans in the House…
By Zachary Roth – Thu Sep 13, 2012 2:56 PM
… Earlier this summer, House Republicans themselves voted for a bill that really could allow states to end welfare's work requirement, according to an authoritative and nonpartisan congressional analysis.
…What's the point here? It's not that House Republicans are the ones who really want to relax the rules so that shifty welfare recipients can laze around all day while getting mailed a check. The change they voted for, giving states more flexibility to consolidate different workforce funds, may well make sense. But that's exactly the case with the Obama adminisitration's (sic) policy change, too. So the GOP's vote points up—as if further evidence were needed—just how dishonest and politically motivated the Romney camp's attack is.
By Steve Benen – Thu Sep 13, 2012, 3:39 PM
House Republicans are pushing new legislation intended to block the Obama administration's waivers. It's obviously a cheap election-year stunt, but the underlying message is pretty remarkable, even for the congressional GOP -- they want to prevent governors from having flexibility in trying welfare-to-work programs that don't weaken work requirements…
And it gets worse…House Republicans, earlier this summer and before Team Romney crafted its notorious lie, voted to ease the work requirement in welfare law. GOP policymakers actually did what Romney falsely accused Obama of doing. Amazing.
By Sahil Kapur – September 14, 2012, 5:53 AM
Republicans have embraced a widely debunked premise to attack President Obama for “gutting” welfare reform. But a House GOP bill that has already cleared a major committee would actually ax the welfare program’s work requirements, according to Congress’ nonpartisan referee.
… “We’re dealing with a fabricated problem, driven by election year campaigns, instead of addressing real problems for American families,” said Education & Workforce Ranking Member George Miller (D-CA).
By David Kurtz – September 14, 2012, 6:16 AM
Congress’ own nonpartisan research and analysis arm, the Congressional Research Service, has concluded that a Republican bill making its way through the House will have the effect of sidestepping the work requirements that are one of the pillars of welfare reform.
Let me say that again.
While launching a series of withering, racial tinged attacks that accused Obama of gutting welfare reform (when in fact his changes to welfare would strengthen the work requirements), Republicans have been pushing through a bill that the independent CRS has now found actually does have the effect of gutting welfare reform’s work requirements.
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