There is nothing more American than the Fourth of July when we come together as a nation to celebrate our country’s independence. Each year, we commemorate our republic’s founding on the bedrock principle of freedom. While many of us spent time away from our jobs with family and friends at barbecues and watching fireworks, far too many Americans can’t share in that celebration, because they feel hopelessly trapped in vulnerable economic, social, and developmental circumstances.
Although we are currently experiencing unprecedented economic growth and vitality, many of our fellow citizens are caught in a struggle to free themselves from the grip of poverty. President Trump believes that the American people deserve better and has called on his administration to seize this unprecedented economic moment to bring that promise of freedom and the American dream to many for whom it is still unrealized.
In the Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families, we are striving to take advantage of the moment by reimagining the American safety net.
According to a 2018 report by the Heritage Foundation, our current public safety net is an aggregation of more than 80 individual programs, each addressing a singular aspect of human need. Our government, federal and states together, spends in excess of $1.1 trillion annually on these programs that are disconnected and have no overarching objective.
Imagine a public safety net that is focused on growing opportunities and possibilities, rather than the administration of endless rules and the limitations of funding.
Imagine a public safety net that is designed and operated with the intention of growing those it serves beyond their need for those services.
Imagine a public safety net that acts as a catalyst to rally every other sector of our society to support that overarching objective so that the whole of America in this effort was far greater than the sum of its parts.
This is our vision for a reimagined American safety net.
Our efforts begin from a perspective that we don’t need to throw more money at this problem or to create scores of new programs. What we need is to unleash the creative genius of states, counties, local communities, and the other sectors of our society. To that end, one of the initiatives proposed in the president’s budget, Opportunity and Economic Mobility Demonstrations, would allow states the flexibility to redesign the delivery of their safety net service. In this proposal, states would be authorized to streamline funding from multiple safety net programs to provide a connected service array with the intention to grow the capacity of those served beyond their need for those services.
This Demonstration Authority will be accompanied with rigorous outcome measures. If our objective is to grow the capacity of those we serve to reduce their dependency on public supports, then that is what we should measure. No longer should units of service delivered, how many are on the rolls, or how much the government expends be the measure of our success. Our measure of success should be how many people we help free from public dependency to carve out their own unique version of the American dream.
The last major reform of the public safety net system 23 years ago was preceded by granting states the authority to demonstrate different models. We believe it is time to let the states innovate again, and while these demonstrations are not intended to be a complete solution, they are an important building block in reimagining all we do as a society in this effort.
There is no better time than the present to rethink our societal effort to serve the economically, socially, and developmentally vulnerable in America than the moment when we celebrate our country’s independence. Please take a moment to reflect on what it would mean to offer many more of our citizens the gift of independence. The bedrock principle of American society is freedom, and freedom is no better embodied than the example of citizens taking control of their destiny, reaching their economic and social liberty, and proudly becoming independent.
Clarence H. Carter is the director of the Office of Family Assistance and the acting director of the Office of Community Services at HHS’ Administration for Children and Families.
