FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Contact: (202) 225-1025
June 4, 1998
No. HR-14
Congressman E. Clay Shaw, Jr., (R-FL), Chairman, Subcommittee on Human Resources of the Committee on Ways and Means, today announced that the Subcommittee will hold a field hearing on welfare reform and child support enforcement. The hearing will take place on Friday, June 12, 1998, at the Phoenix State Capitol, Senate Hearing Room No. 1, in Phoenix, Arizona, beginning at 10:00 a.m.
Oral testimony at this hearing will be from invited witnesses only. Witnesses will include a State legislator, State social service administrators, and representatives of tribal governments. Any individual or organization not scheduled for an oral appearance may submit a written statement for consideration by the Committee and for inclusion in the printed record of the hearing.
FOCUS OF THE HEARING:
The field hearing will focus on the impact of both the new Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program and the child support enforcement program on low-income families in Arizona. A major reason the Subcommittee is traveling to Arizona is to determine whether the TANF program and the child support enforcement program are providing the help they should to Native Americans. The Subcommittee is interested in learning about the policies adopted by State officials to produce reports of remarkable improvement. The hearing will provide an opportunity for the Subcommittee to hear directly from legislators who designed the Arizona programs, administrators who are implementing the programs, and Native Americans participating in and, in some cases, administering the programs.
BACKGROUND:
The field hearing is part of a series of hearings the Subcommittee has been conducting to study the impact of the 1996 welfare reform law. When the welfare reform law was enacted, the Subcommittee included several provisions designed to ensure that the TANF program, the child support program, and the child care program could be effectively implemented to benefit Native American tribes. In general, these provisions either detailed special rules for Native Americans or created opportunities for tribal governments to administer their own programs. Thus, for example, the legislation specified the circumstances under which tribal governments could have a direct appropriation of funds under the TANF program as well as the authority to administer their own child support enforcement program. The legislation also required State governors, as a condition of receiving their share of TANF funds, to provide written assurances that benefits and welfare-to-work services would be provided on an equitable basis to Native Americans. Similarly, when Congress enacted legislation appropriating $3 billion to help States mount special work programs for those with the most serious barriers to employment, the Subcommittee included a provision that provided a 1 percent set-aside for Native Americans.
Given that Arizona has among the highest concentrations of Native American tribes in the nation, first-hand information about how these and related provisions are being implemented would prove useful to the Subcommittee in understanding whether the various provisions included in the 1996 legislation are working as intended.
The Subcommittee also has a long history of work on the child support enforcement program. A host of new provisions intended to improve child support programs in all the States was included in the 1996 welfare reform legislation. The Subcommittee has already conducted two hearings to determine the impact these provisions are having in the States. Conducting a hearing in Arizona will provide the Subcommittee with the opportunity to study the implementation of these provisions in a State that has a very strong track record on child support enforcement. Early reports indicate that Arizona is conducting several innovative programs with Native American tribal governments. In addition, the Arizona child support enforcement program has one of the best records of increased child support collections in the nation.
In announcing the hearing, Chairman Shaw stated: "Our Subcommittee has been very concerned about the impact on Native Americans of all the Federal programs under our jurisdiction. We included provisions in the TANF program, the child support program, and other social programs to provide additional flexibility for Native Americans to run their own programs. We are especially interested in the innovative ways in which Arizona and tribal governments are implementing these provisions and whether additional legislation is needed."
DETAILS FOR SUBMISSION OF WRITTEN COMMENTS:
Any person or organization wishing to submit a written statement for the printed record of the hearing should submit six (6) single-spaced copies of their statement, along with an IBM compatible 3.5-inch diskette in WordPerfect 5.1 format, with their name, address, and hearing date noted on a label, by the close of business, Friday, June 26, 1998, to A.L. Singleton, Chief of Staff, Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, 1102 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515. If those filing written statements wish to have their statements distributed to the press and interested public at the hearing, they may deliver 75 additional copies for this purpose to the site of the hearing, at least one hour before the hearing begins.
FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS:
Each statement presented for printing to the Committee by a witness, any written statement or exhibit submitted for the printed record or any written comments in response to a request for written comments must conform to the guidelines listed below. Any statement or exhibit not in compliance with these guidelines will not be printed, but will be maintained in the Committee files for review and use by the Committee.
1. All statements and any accompanying exhibits for printing must be submitted on an IBM compatible 3.5-inch diskette WordPerfect 5.1 format, typed in single space and may not exceed a total of 10 pages including attachments. Witnesses are advised that the Committee will rely on electronic submissions for printing the official hearing record.
2. Copies of whole documents submitted as exhibit material will not be accepted for printing. Instead, exhibit material should be referenced and quoted or paraphrased. All exhibit material not meeting these specifications will be maintained in the Committee files for review and use by the Committee.
3. A witness appearing at a public hearing, or submitting a statement for the record of a public hearing, or submitting written comments in response to a published request for comments by the Committee, must include on his statement or submission a list of all clients, persons, or organizations on whose behalf the witness appears.
4. A supplemental sheet must accompany each statement listing the name, company, address, telephone and fax numbers where the witness or the designated representative may be reached. This supplemental sheet will not be included in the printed record.
The above restrictions and limitations apply only to material being submitted for printing. Statements and exhibits or supplementary material submitted solely for distribution to the Members, the press, and the public during the course of a public hearing may be submitted in other forms.
The
Committee seeks to make its facilities accessible to persons with
disabilities. If you are in need of special accommodations, please
call 202-225-1721 or 202-226-3411 TTD/TTY in advance of the event
(four business days notice is requested). Questions with regard to
special accommodation needs in general (including availability of
Committee materials in alternative formats) may be directed to the
Committee as noted above.