[Pages S8090-S8092]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

By Mr. AKAKA (for himself, Mr. Moynihan, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr.
Wellstone, Mrs. Murray, and Mr. Lautenberg):
S. 1317. A bill to reauthorize the Welfare-to-Work program to provide
additional resources and flexibility to improve the administration of
the program; to the Committee on Finance.

welfare-to-work amendments of 1999

Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, I rise to introduce a bill that would
continue a program vital to helping welfare recipients who face the
greatest barriers to finding and securing employment, called the
Welfare-to-Work Amendments of 1999. My bill targets resources to
families and communities with the greatest need, simplifies eligibility
criteria for participation, and helps non-custodial parents get jobs to
enable them to make child support payments. It also opens more
resources to Native Americans, the homeless, those with disabilities or
substance abuse problems, and victims of domestic violence. This is
similar to a proposal unveiled by the Clinton Administration earlier
this year and introduced as H.R. 1482 by Representative Benjamin Cardin
of Maryland. I would also like to thank my colleagues Senators
Moynihan, Feinstein, Wellstone, Murray, and Lautenberg for joining me
as original cosponsors of my bill.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a letter which I received
from the Secretary of Labor, Alexis Herman, be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the letter was ordered to be printed in the
Record, as follows:

Secretary of Labor,

Washington, July 1, 1999.
Hon. Daniel K. Akaka,
U.S. Senate,
Washington, DC.
Dear Senator Akaka: I congratulate you on the introduction
of the ``Welfare-to-Work Amendments of 1999.'' I am pleased
that your legislation joins that introduced by Rep. Benjamin
Cardin earlier this year in the House in seeking to
accomplish the Administration's objectives in reauthorizing
the Welfare-to-Work (WtW) Grants Program. President Clinton
and I believe the Welfare-to-Work Grants Program is a key
component of the overall welfare reform effort. While welfare
caseloads have declined by nearly half over the last six
years, many individuals remaining on welfare are long-term
recipients who face significant barriers to employment. As
the President said in his April 10th radio address, ``We
can't finish the job of welfare reform without doing more to
help people who have the hardest time moving from welfare to
work--those who live in the poorest neighborhoods and have
the poorest job skills. That's why I call on Congress to pass
my plan to extend the Department of Labor's Welfare-to-Work
program.''
This legislation incorporates the President's proposal to
extend the WtW Program, reflecting key suggestions the
Administration has received from State and local service
providers since the passage of the Balanced Budget Act of
1997. The WtW program funds job creation, job placement, and
job retention efforts to help long-term welfare recipients
and non-custodial parents move into lasting, unsubsidized
employment. In addition to helping long-term welfare
recipients make the transition from welfare to work, this
bill will help more low-income fathers increase their
employment and their involvement with their children. Demand
for WtW has been great. Last year, over 1,400 applicants from
local communities across the nation applied for more than $5
billion in WtW Competitive Grants, but DOL had sufficient
resources to fund less than 10 percent of these projects. In
addition, 44 states covering 95 percent of the welfare
caseload applied for formula funds. While the fundamental
principles and features of the program are maintained
(including the focus on work, targeting resources to
individuals and communities with the greatest need, and
administration through the locally administered, business-led
workforce investment system) we are also pleased to see the
principles of the original legislation further carried out by
the addition of the following enhancements:
A simplification of eligibility criteria which continues to
focus on long-term welfare recipients but provides that at
least one, rather than two, specified barriers to employment
must be met.
The provisions of even greater flexibility to serve those
with the greatest challenges to employment by the addition of
long-term welfare recipients who are victims of domestic
violence, individuals with disabilities, or homeless as
eligible to participate.
A strong focus on the family by targeting at least 20
percent of the WtW Formula Grant funds to help noncustodial
parents (mainly fathers) with children who are on or have
exhausted Temporary Assistance to Needy Families fulfill
their responsibilities to their children by committing to
work and pay child support.
An increase in the reserve for grants to Indian tribes from
the current 1 percent of the total to 3 percent, and an
authorization for Indian tribes to apply directly to the
Department of Labor for WtW Competitive Grants.
A procedure which allows unallotted formula funds to be
used to award competitive grants in the subsequent year,
providing a preference in awarding these funds to those local
applicants and tribes from States that did not receive
formula grants.
The development of streamlined reporting requirements
through the Department of Labor.
The establishment of a one percent reserve of Fiscal Year
2000 funds for technical assistance which includes sharing of
innovative and promising practices and strategies for serving
noncustodial parents.
In addition to the changes proposed by the Administration,
the legislation also provides for:
The inclusion of children aging out of foster care as
eligible service recipients and
The addition of job skills training and vocational
educational training.
While our welfare reform efforts have resulted in some
important early successes, much remains to be done.
Reauthorizing the WtW program, together with the
Administration's proposals to provide welfare-to-work housing
vouchers, transportation funds, and employer tax credits,
will provide parents the tools they need to support their
children and succeed in the workforce. Your introduction of
the ``Welfare-to-Work Amendments of 1999'' provides
significant opportunities to hard-to-employ welfare
recipients to make the transition to stable employment and
assist noncustodial parents in making meaningful
contributions to their children's well-being. I applaud and
support your efforts.
The Office of Management and Budget advises that it has no
objection to the transmittal of this report from the
standpoint of the Administration's program.
Sincerely,
Alexis M. Herman.

Mr. AKAKA. Mr. President, I quote from that letter to me.

President Clinton and I believe the Welfare-to-Work Grants
Program is a key component of the overall welfare reform
efforts.

Mr. President, the Welfare-to-Work program has helped numerous
welfare parents--both custodial and non-custodial--find and keep jobs
that pay a living wage and allow them to fulfill basic obligations to
their children. Children have fundamental needs for food, shelter, and
clothing, yet many parents find themselves barely scraping by, in order
to obtain these things. Many families are unable to go much beyond the
essentials to enroll their children in sports and other activities that
build strong bodies and social skills, or to provide them with decent
school supplies, books or computers to develop strong minds. Most
families take these things for granted because they live without the
anxiety of wondering when the next paycheck or child support payment
might be coming in. They have the finances to pay for child care to
enable parents to work during the day. They have cars or other access
to transportation that will take them to work every morning. Or they
have a telephone so that they may receive calls for job interviews. The
families that cannot make ends meet continue to live in dire need and
find their children living at risk.
Mr. President, 14.5 million American children live in poverty.
Furthermore, as reported in Kids Count 1999, 32 percent of children do
not live with two parents and 19 percent live in a home where the head
of household is a high school dropout. Twenty-one percent of children
are in families with incomes below the poverty line, 28 percent are
living with a parent or parents lacking steady full-time employment,
and 15 percent do not have health insurance. It is a shame that, in the
most prosperous nation in the world, we continue to be faced with these
dismal statistics for our children--young Americans who hold the
promise of this country's future in their hands.
Many of these children were helped when the Balanced Budget Act of
1997 created the Welfare-to-Work program as a new system for providing
assistance to welfare recipients most in need. This followed on the
heels of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity
Reconciliation Act of 1996, which replaced the Aid to Families with
Dependent Children cash assistance program with the Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.
The 1996 welfare reform law addressed the bulk of the welfare
population but lacked a component to help the hardest to employ welfare
recipients. Thus, Welfare-to-Work was passed to assist this population
find jobs and achieve independence so they no longer

[[Page S8091]]

would need public support. The Welfare-to-Work program became an
essential component of the Administration's welfare reform effort by
providing recipients with a good alternative to welfare.
Since 1996, the number of people in the system dropped by a record
number: forty percent from a peak of about five million families in
1994 down to three million families as of June, 1998, according to the
General Accounting Office. However, the job is not finished. Welfare-
to-Work is needed now more than ever because those remaining on the
rolls are increasing likely to have multiple barriers to employment
such as poor work experience, inadequate English or computer skills, or
substance abuse problems.
We need to invest much more to help these individuals reach self-
sufficiency than we did in those who have already left welfare-these
individuals might have already had an educational record, special
skills or significant family support behind them to help them to their
feet. In contrast, Welfare-to-Work participants are the welfare
recipients who need the most help. In addition, extending Welfare-to-
Work will become even more important when TANF recipients and their
children reach welfare time limits in 19 states by year's end and have
their benefits reduced or completely removed.
These are the hard luck cases, Mr. President. These are the people
who continue to be left out of the economic boom of the 1990s. And
these are the people whom Welfare-to-Work was designed to help. If we
let the program expire this year, even if states have three years from
the date of award to spend their program funds, we will be saying to
these people, ``We've forgotten the promises we made to you in 1996
that we would continue to help you. Now, there is no more help for
you.''
This would be particularly harmful in my state of Hawaii which has
struggled due to the Asian financial crisis and has been the only state
where welfare rolls have increased. Welfare-to-Work has assisted many
of Hawaii's welfare recipients through this period of financial
hardship for the state by helping them find unsubsidized employment.
The program must be extended so that it may help other recipients and
their families in my beleaguered state.
My bill not only extends the Welfare-to-Work program, but it also
makes a number of important improvements to the program that states,
counties, and cities have requested. Currently, most funds allocated to
Welfare-to-Work state formula grants cannot be used because of
eligibility criteria that are difficult to meet. Currently, an
individual must have been receiving assistance for at least 30 months
or must be within 12 months of reaching the maximum period for
assistance. In addition, they must have two of three characteristics,
including: lacks a high school diploma or GED and has low math or
reading skills; has a poor work history; or requires substance abuse
treatment for employment. These criteria have excluded many TANF
applicants who, for instance, may have a GED or high school diploma but
still cannot read; these criteria have proven unrealistic.

Instead, under my bill, criteria would be changed to require
participants to have one out of seven characteristics: lacks a high
school diploma or GED; has English reading writing, or computer skills
at or below the 8th grade level; has a poor work history; requires
substance abuse treatment for employment; is homeless; has a
disability; or is a victim of domestic violence. This revision in
eligibility criteria would allow the program to better match the
participant pool. It is necessary because current criteria have left
more than 90 percent of Welfare-to-Work state formula grants unspent.
In Hawaii alone, only 37 percent of our TANF recipients have been
eligible to participate in the program, and this figure would double
under my bill. Furthermore, officials of the Hawaii Department of Human
Services which administers TANF and Welfare-to-Work in my state predict
that unless the Federal law is changed, it is unlikely that they will
be able to refer clients in sufficient numbers to meet WtW
expectations. Similar situations exist in all states, and these
criteria revisions respond to State and local entities that have been
doing the work of Welfare-to-Work and want to serve as many
participants as possible. In Texas, 21,000 people would be able to
participate in the program, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Under my bill, figures like this could be seen across the nation, and
more people in need would be able to find employment.
A related improvement contained in my bill is that it transfers any
unallocated Welfare-to-Work formula grant funds into the competitive
grant program. This competitive grant program has been tremendously
popular.
Out of the 1400 applications submitted requesting a total of $5
billion, only 126 applications for $470 million in funds were awarded
in FY 1998. This portion of Welfare-to-Work needs more funding. Under
my bill, preference is given to grant applications submitted from
states that did not receive a formula grant.
Mr. President, my bill also provides a re-emphasis on the whole
family. This past Father's Day, I had the opportunity to celebrate with
several of my children and their families, as it was a day to celebrate
and honor the family. However, many fathers were not as fortunate as
myself and were not able to celebrate with their children because they
went through divorce and did not receive custody of the children. Even
worse, many of these fathers are dismissively labeled ``dead beat
dads'' because they are not a presence in their children's lives and do
not pay child support. What we have found, Mr. President, is that many
of these fathers do not want to abandon their children. Rather, they
are ``dead broke dads'' and face the same barriers to finding and
holding employment that many welfare mothers do. This prevents them
from fulfilling child support obligations, which many want to do. If
these fathers can provide for their children, they will be more likely
to see them more often. Hopefully, renewed financial and emotional
involvement of fathers will mean that these children's lives will
improve.
For these non-custodial fathers, my bill will make it easier for them
to participate in Welfare-to-Work. Currently, non-custodial parents
face the same problems in attempting to qualify for Welfare-to-Work as
other applicants because of the same overly-restrictive criteria. Under
my bill, the eligibility requirements for non-custodial parents will be
revised to allow them to demonstrate that they are unemployed,
underemployed, or having difficulty paying child support payments. In
addition, at least one of the following characteristics must apply to
the minor child or non-custodial parent: the child or non-custodial
parent has been on public assistance for over 30 months, or is within
12 months of becoming ineligible for TANF due to a time limit; the
child is receiving or eligible for TANF; the child has left TANF within
the past year; or the child is receiving or is eligible for
food stamps, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Medicaid, or the
Children's Health Improvement Program (CHIP).

The bill increases funding for non-custodial parents by requiring
that at least 20 percent of state formula funds be used for this
population. The bill also provides that a non-custodial parent will
enter into an individual responsibility contract with the service
provider and state agency to say that he or she will cooperate in the
establishment of paternity and in the establishment or modification of
a child support order, make regular child support payments, and find
and hold a job. These revisions are an attempt to permit and encourage
non-custodial parents to provide for their children, become more
involved in their children's lives, and pursue better lives for
themselves and their families.
Mr. President, Native American communities will benefit from my bill
from a doubling of the Native American set-aside from $15 million to
$30 million. This funding increase in necessary because Native
Americans currently receive one percent of the total Welfare-to-Work
funds but serve 3.2 percent of total program participants, according to
a recent U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Welfare-to-Work
Evaluation. In recognition of their sovereignty, the bill also provides
Native American tribes with flexibility in designing programs that are
effective for their territories. It is a gross understatement to say
that our Native

[[Page S8092]]

American communities have not had the chance to experience the economic
success that our nation has been enjoying. We must do what we can to
make up for this shortfall, fulfill our Federal responsibilities to
Native Americans, and help families and children in Native American
communities who face obstacles to self-sufficiency.
Mr. President, children who leave foster care at age 18 make up
another hard-to-help population that faces numerous barriers to
employment. My bill introduces new support for these individuals when
they attempt to start out on their own by allowing them to take
advantage of Welfare-to-Work programs. According to DOL, 20,000
children leave foster care annually. Of these, 32 to 40 percent receive
some type of government assistance within the first 18 months after
leaving the foster care system. This bill provides funds to help them
find alternatives to welfare as they leave their state care system.

My bill simplifies Welfare-to-Work reporting requirements so that the
program can be evaluated effectively. This evaluation will allow
Congress and DOL access to better statistics on how the program is
performing nationwide. In addition, one-percent of the funds are
provided for technical assistance so that DOL can ensure cooperation
between states, local governments, TANF and child support agencies, and
community-based organizations so that all are able to work together and
be better able to provide services to those who are in need.
Finally, the bill eases Welfare-to-Work's ``work first'' requirements
that mean that TANF recipients must find jobs first, before they are
able to take advantage of stand-alone programs such as job training,
basic education or vocational education programs. My bill would
designate these as allowable work activities under Welfare-to-Work.
This change is in response to requests from states who want to use
program funds to better prepare recipients for the workforce before
sending them off to a job. This approach seeks to improve TANF
recipients' chances at maintaining steady employment.
Although my colleagues may have disagreed on welfare reform in the
past, Welfare-to-Work is a program that all should be able to support.
It represents a Federal-state-local partnership, as well as a
partnership between government, private industry, and community-based
organizations. It encourages people to take responsibility for
themselves, find work, and contribute to their families and society in
a meaningful way. We cannot abandon these welfare recipients who are
the most difficult to employ and must instead invest in them in a way
that will help them find jobs paying a living wage, become self-
sufficient, and allow them to break out of the cycle of dependency on
public assistance.
I would again like to thank my colleagues Senators Moynihan,
Feinstein, Wellstone, Murray, and Lautenberg for joining me as original
cosponsors of my bill, and I urge other colleagues to join us in
supporting this important Welfare-to-Work reauthorization bill.
______