THE PROBLEM:

 Despite moving millions of Americans off government dependency and into a job, welfare reform is now under attack from the Obama administration. “Guidance” released by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in July 2012 allows states to seek a waiver from the work requirements critical to the success of welfare reform. Under the guise of state flexibility, the president is unilaterally weakening efforts to assist needy families. Flaws with the Obama administration’s waiver proposal include:

• Waiving critical work requirements without any legal basis. Current welfare reform law provides limited and explicit waiver authority to the HHS Secretary. Nowhere does the law state the secretary can waive Section 407 of the Social Security Act, which outlines federal work requirements. In fact, no administration has claimed it can waive the law’s work requirements since reform was enacted 17 years ago – at least not until now. If Congress wanted to allow the work requirements to be waived, it would have said so in the law.
    
• Taking us back to the days when some states gamed the system. A 2005 Government Accountability Office study found some states were claiming personal journaling, bed rest, and weight loss as “work activities.” In 2006, Congress required the HHS Secretary to strengthen the department's oversight of how states determine appropriate work activities, as well as on verifying the number of hours worked and determining who is able to work. The president’s waiver scheme could open the door to new abuses of taxpayer dollars under the auspices of more “flexibility” in helping impoverished families. 
     
• Unwinding years of progress in moving families from welfare to work. More than 12 million Americans are struggling to find a job in the Obama economy. Even in the midst of a persistently weak economy, there are fewer children in female-headed households living in poverty today than before welfare reform was signed into law. Instead of providing support that will help unemployed Americans move into employment, the President’s executive overreach will lead to more dependency for those struggling the most under his failed policies. President Obama should work with Congress on solutions that will create jobs and expand personal opportunity, not circumvent Congress to advance controversial policies that lead to more dependence and less hope for the American people. 

THE SOLUTION:

Congress cannot allow the Obama administration to do an end run around the law and roll back critical reforms that have lifted millions of Americans out of poverty. That is why House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI), along with Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-MN), Republican Study Committee Chairman Steve Scalise (R-LA), and Steve Southerland (R-FL) introduced the Preserving Work Requirements for Welfare Programs Act of 2013 on February 28, 2013.