WASHINGTON -
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration
has quietly opened the door for states to seek major changes in how they
meet federal welfare-to-work requirements for some of their poorest
residents, and leading conservatives are crying foul.
In a memo to states issued
with little notice late Thursday, the federal Health and Human Services
Department said it is interested in approving state experiments that
will help "find more effective mechanisms for helping families succeed
in employment."
States will not be able to
escape the work requirements of the landmark 1996 federal welfare reform
law, the administration said, but they may get federal approval to try
to accomplish the same goals by using different methods than those
spelled out in the legislation.
Signed by Democratic
President Bill Clinton as he steered his administration toward the
political center, the welfare reform law replaced a federal entitlement
with grants to the states, while putting a time limit on how long
families can get aid and requiring recipients to eventually go to work.
The program is now called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or
TANF for short.
What started out as just
another bureaucratic memorandum drew a swift rebuke from one of the
authors of welfare reform, as well as from senior Republican lawmakers.
Having battled to a standoff over President Barack Obama's health care
law, welfare could become another social policy flash point between
Republicans in Congress and the administration.
"They have arrogated to
themselves complete control over this program, and they did it through
what's essentially foul play," Robert Rector, a nationally known social
policy expert with the conservative Heritage Foundation, said Friday.
Rector, who helped draft
the original legislation, said the administration's move amounted to an
end-run around the law's work requirement and therefore violates the
law.
He was backed up by House
Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., and Sen. Orrin Hatch of
Utah, the senior Republican on the committee that oversees welfare. Camp
called the waiver plan "a brazen and unwarranted unraveling of welfare
reform," while Hatch called it a "power grab."
In a letter to HHS
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the two lawmakers demanded an explanation,
saying the work requirements have remained untouched for 16 years and
may not be waived. "No other administration ... has ever arrived at the
conclusion that TANF work requirements can be waived," said the two
lawmakers.
The administration said the
waiver program is a response to concerns from state officials -
Republicans as well as Democrats - that the work requirements in the law
are too rigid and create bureaucratic hurdles to actually placing
welfare recipients in jobs. Officials say the program does not violate
the underlying law because of a provision that allows waivers of state
plans.
In its memo to the states,
the administration said no waivers will be allowed that could reduce
access to employment, nor will they permit exceptions to time limits on
welfare assistance. Waivers can be revoked if the experiments don't work
out. Still, a state can seek a waiver to cover its entire welfare
population.
"We will hold states
accountable," said George Sheldon, head of the federal Administration
for Children and Families, the HHS agency that oversees the program. "If
states are not meeting their performance targets, their authority to
test new ideas will be terminated."
California, Connecticut,
Minnesota, Nevada, and Utah have already asked about waivers. Nevada and
Utah have Republican governors.
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