Washington, DC – Today, Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) and Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee Chairman Dave Reichert (R-WA) made the following statements after the House passed H.R. 890, the Preserving the Welfare Work Requirement and TANF Extension Act of 2013. The legislation prohibits the Obama Administration from waiving the work requirements that are an essential element of welfare reform enacted in 1996 and also extends through December 31, 2013 the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or TANF cash welfare program. The vote was 246 to 181, with 18 Democrats joining 228 Republicans in rejecting the Administration’s attempts to circumvent Congress and undermine the critical work requirements for welfare recipients.
“Today’s vote shows that there is clear, bipartisan opposition in Congress to the Obama Administration’s efforts to dismantle the welfare work requirements,” said Camp. “These work requirements, along with the other landmark 1996 welfare reforms, have been essential to increasing work and earnings and decreasing welfare dependence and poverty among low-income Americans. I urge my Senate colleagues to pass this legislation and send it to the President’s desk for his signature.”
“I thank my House colleagues for passing this important piece of legislation,” said Reichert. “Protecting the TANF program from the Administration’s misguided efforts to waive work requirements and extending the program through the end of the year will give the Subcommittee on Human Resources time to work toward bipartisan improvements in the TANF program. It will also ensure hard-working Americans who have fallen into difficult circumstances will get the temporary assistance they need to transition off of welfare and into full-time employment. We must continue to make job creation and providing pathways to jobs our number one priority.”