On September 28, the House approved, 416-0, a bill (H.R. 5149) to extend the 1996 welfare reform law (P.L. 104-193) through March 31, 2005. The Senate approved the measure by unanimous consent on September 30. It will now go to the White House for President Bush’s signature.
The House approved a welfare reauthorization bill (H.R. 4) on February 13, 2003 (see The Source, 2/14/03). The Senate debated H.R. 4 earlier this year, but on April 1, a GOP leadership effort to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to consideration of the bill failed (see The Source, 4/2/04). Since its expiration in September 2002, Congress has approved eight extensions of the 1996 law. The most recent extension expired on September 30.
Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-CT) said that the goal of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program “was always twofold: first, it was to help women who had children and no means of support and therefore were dependent on welfare to regain their economic independence by entering the workforce. That goal was for the woman, so she could realize her greatest potential, she could gain control of her life by being economically self-sufficient. And then the second goal was to lift her and her children out of poverty, occasionally he and his children out of poverty.” Arguing that the program has been successful, she added, “Two million children have been lifted out of poverty. According to the census, the poverty rate for African American children and the poverty rate for children living with single mothers hit a record low in 2001 and 2002.”
Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) disagreed, contending that the program has not been successful: “Instead of making this TANF law better, instead of giving welfare recipients the tools to move from welfare to self-sufficiency, we are once again renewing, for the eighth time…a bill that continues moving families from welfare further into poverty. Instead, we should be making education or training count as work so that that activity for welfare recipients will help them get ready for better educational opportunities and job training so they can have better opportunities for earning a salary that pays a livable wage. They will not get that unless they have education and training. Instead of again extending an outdated welfare bill, we should be providing quality child care, child care that includes more care for infants, child care that extends to parents who work weekends and evenings. That is what we need. That is what these parents need.”
