Statement of the Rev. David Beckmann, President, Bread for the World

Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Human Resources
of the House Committee on Ways and Means

Hearing on Welfare Reform Reauthorization Proposals

April 11, 2002

My name is Rev. David Beckmann, and I am president of Bread for the World.  I appreciate this opportunity to present testimony to the subcommittee about Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

Bread for the World is a grassroots, Christian citizens movement.  Our membership is rooted in churches all across the United States, and seeks justice for hungry and poor people in the U.S. and in the poorest parts of the world. 

This year our 46,000 members – people of deep Christian faith – are actively organizing a nation-wide letter writing campaign.  We expect Bread for the World members to generate over 150,000 letters urging their members of Congress to improve TANF, because we believe that welfare is a hunger issue.  As an anti-hunger organization, the TANF law and the states’ TANF programs are of great importance to us.  Census data show that low-income households are more likely to experience hunger than other households, and thus it is clear that reducing poverty in this country will reduce hunger.  And, let us not forget: nearly three quarters of all the people receiving TANF benefits are children.

Much of this year’s debate about TANF will revolve around the question of whether or not the 1996 TANF law was a success or a failure.  We believe that is the wrong question.  Instead the debate should revolve around the question of how we can improve TANF so as to enable many more families to leave hunger and poverty behind and attain long-term self-sufficiency.

Bread for the World is not seeking to overturn the TANF law or turn back the clock to pre-1996 times.  Rather we are seeking to amend the TANF law in ways that will provide the tools necessary for families to make the difficult transition from poverty to self-sufficiency.  We have looked carefully at the TANF law and experience, and we have identified four areas where we believe it can be improved.  These improvements are morally and practically the right thing to do:

1. Make poverty reduction an explicit goal of TANF.  The current law is flawed in its inordinate attention to caseload reduction, when the real issue that should claim our attention is poverty reduction.  Poverty continues to be a persistent reality in our nation, despite the economic boom of the 1990s.  Even though TANF caseloads have declined, 31 million people still live in poverty, including 11.6 million children, and all across the country churches and soup kitchens are seeing dramatic increases in requests for assistance.  Reducing the TANF rolls and putting people to work has not cut deeply into the poverty rate, for two basic reasons: (a) 40% of those leaving TANF have neither jobs nor TANF benefits, and (b) many of the TANF leavers who do have jobs are working for very low wages.  Work is good, and the vast majority of those on welfare are eager to work, but leaving poverty behind and becoming self-sufficient is even better.

To implement this step, we urge you to require the states to develop a plan for reducing the extent and severity of poverty among families participating in TANF, and to include it in their annual TANF plans.  This would add consideration of progress toward poverty reduction as one of the factors in determining which states receive bonuses for high-performance success.

2. Enhance the long-term employability and self-sufficiency of TANF participants through increased education and training opportunities.  Study after study shows that TANF leavers who are most successful in sustaining employment are those who have a technical or two-year degree.  According to the census, the more years of education a woman completes, the less likely she is to live in poverty.

To implement this step, we urge you to add participation in post-secondary education and training as an acceptable work activity, and combine education with work for those who need longer to complete their training.  Extend the time limit for exclusive participation in education and training to 24 months.  Eliminate the 30% cap on participation in education and training, thus giving states the flexibility they need to design programs that effectively move people into sustainable jobs.  Require states to work with each TANF client to develop a self-sufficiency plan.  Require states to consider regional labor markets and seek workforce-training opportunities to meet the needs of employers while also improving the wage outcomes of TANF leavers.  Reward states for success in training, placing and retaining TANF leavers in higher-wage jobs.

3. Create flexibility for states to help families who are finding the path to independence difficult to manage.  TANF participants are being pushed into low-wage jobs that do not provide sufficient income to support a family, and thus they continue to need some types of assistance to make ends meet.  The average wage of an employed TANF leaver is $6.75 per hour, far too low to support several dependents.

To implement this step, we urge you to exclude benefits to working families from the lifetime sixty-month time-limit restrictions.  Those who are working at jobs should not lose their months of TANF eligibility while working.  We also urge you to add disability and mental illness to the list of specific hardships that some clients face in achieving self-sufficiency.

4. Ensure adequate funding for TANF nationwide.  Continuing the federal block grant at the same level for several more years is just not adequate for this time of rising unemployment.  To implement this step, we urge you to index both the annual block grant and the state funding requirements to inflation.

All of these improvements to the TANF program are contained in the Working from Poverty to Promise Act of 2002, which will be introduced in the House this week with bipartisan sponsorship.  Please look carefully at that bill. We believe that the incorporation of that bill into the final TANF reauthorization package will prove very effective in enabling millions of people to leave poverty behind and achieve the promise of self-sufficiency.

Finally, let me mention some of our concerns about President Bush’s proposal.  The president’s plan fails to recognize the enormous importance of education and training in lifting people out of poverty, and actually makes it more difficult for TANF participants to obtain education and training. It provides no new resources for childcare, even though it mandates increased work requirements, which means more demand for childcare.  It keeps the TANF block grant at the 1996 level, despite the fact that inflation has eroded its value and states are spending billions more than the block grant provides them.  It strips flexibility from the states in numerous ways.  In short, the president’s plan does not live up to the rhetoric that surrounded its release. It fails to provide either the resources or the programs that are necessary to help struggling families succeed and thrive.

Thank you very much for considering these views.  Bread for the World would be pleased to provide additional information to you on any of these points.