Issue Analysis
December, 2005
Breaking
Faith and Violating the Congressional Budget Act: TANF Reauthorization Doesn't
Belong in Budget Reconciliation Legislation (pdf, 147k)
It has been nearly four years since the Bush Administration unveiled its controversial
and wide-ranging plan to rework the bipartisan welfare reform law of 1996. Unable
to enact the Administration’s proposal under normal Congressional procedures
— and apparently unwilling to modify the proposal in response to widespread
criticism from states, local governments, and others — House Republican
leadership is now trying to circumvent the standard legislative process by tucking
the TANF measure into its massive budget reconciliation bill. Download the PDF
for full analysis.
Press
and Media Coverage
Press and Media coverage and editorials conerning Welfare Reform and Income
Supports.
December, 2005
Missing the Point Entirely: A Misleading Argument for Including TANF Reauthorization in Reconciliation (pdf, 69k)
In a recent letter to the editor of the Orlando Sentinel, Rep. John Boehner
(R-OH) took issue with a Sentinel editorial urging members of Congress not to
include extensive changes to the 1996 welfare reform law as part of the massive
budget reconciliation measure currently pending in Congress. Disputing the conclusion
of the Sentinel that “welfare changes deserved to be considered and debated
separately by both chambers, not buried in a broader budget measure”,
Boehner noted that the reconciliation process was used in 1996 to pass the original
welfare reform law.
Boehner failed to mention, however, that there are a number of important differences
between the process that ended in the passage of the 1996 welfare reform law
and the current process. Download this PDF for a complete analysis.
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