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Committee On Ways and Means

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Press Office (202) 225-8933
August 13, 2001

Herger Urges States To Continue
Supporting Working Families
GAO Releases Report on State Spending
Under Welfare Reform

WASHINGTON – At the request of Human Resources Subcommittee Chairman Wally Herger (R-CA), the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) released a report titled "Welfare Reform: Challenges in Maintaining the Federal-State Fiscal Partnership." The report addresses several budget issues, including changing state and Federal funding shares, unspent Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds, and state savings for "rainy days."

"I am encouraged by GAO’s report that states are supporting work by giving a hand up and not a hand out, and maintaining the state-Federal partnership we forged in the 1996 welfare reform law," stated Subcommittee Chairman Wally Herger. "I also appreciate the suggestions on how to save more for rainy days to come. This holds promise to better support low-income families with children in a recession and better protect taxpayers who pay for welfare and related benefits in good times and bad."

  • Emphasizes the importance of requiring states to maintain significant funding for programs to assist low-income families, and confirms that those provisions are being fulfilled.

  • Underscores a dramatic shift away from former categories of state spending – primarily cash benefits under the failed Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program – toward a broader array of support for working families, including child care and social services to assist parents who leave welfare for work.

  • Assesses whether states examined are "supplanting" or replacing their own funds with Federal TANF block grant funds. The report concludes most states are not supplanting given a complete analysis of programs working to help low-income families achieve greater self-sufficiency.

  • Concludes that over time, most states have maintained or even increased their own investment to address the overall needs of low-income families.

The GAO report can be accessed at: http://www.gao.gov/daybook/010813.htm

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