 April 2002
American Friends Service Committee Peacework Magazine Patrica Watson, Editor Sara Burke, Assistant Editor Pat Farren, Founding Editor 2161 Massachusetts Ave. Telephone number: Fax number:
pwork@igc.org Peacework has been published monthly since 1972, intended to serve as a source of dependable information to those who strive for peace and justice and are committed to furthering the nonviolent social change necessary to achieve them. Rooted in Quaker values and informed by AFSC experience and initiatives, Peacework offers a forum for organizers, fostering coalition-building and teaching the methods and strategies that work in the global and local community. Peacework seeks to serve as an incubator for social transformation, introducing a younger generation to a deeper analysis of problems and issues, reminding and re-inspiring long-term activists, encouraging the generations to listen to each other, and creating space for the voices of the disenfranchised. Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC. |
Welfare Alert This action report was prepared by Roberta Spivek, Economic Security Advocate, AFSC's National Women's Program. For more information: rspivek@afsc.org, or 215/241-7037. Welfare recipients and their allies have shifted into high gear as Congress begins considering changes to the 1996 welfare reform law. Lawmakers are rushing to prove themselves tough on 'work' and 'marriage.' Meanwhile, welfare-rights, labor, religious, women's, immigrant, and child-welfare groups are struggling to lift up the voices of welfare recipients, and transform a vision of support and opportunity for all low-income families into national policy. At both the state and national levels, activists have been organizing, demonstrating, and lobbying. In Chico, California, welfare recipients held a 'town meeting' with their Member of Congress, Rep. Wally Herger (R-CA), chair of the crucial House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources. In West Virginia and other states, coalitions are challenging time limits. In Washington, DC, over 2000 members of the National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support demonstrated at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Heritage Foundation offices. On Capitol Hill, the Coalition on Human Needs, the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, the National Council of Churches, and other coalitions are spearheading intensive lobbying efforts. While these efforts have had some success, their impact remains unclear. Under the 1996 welfare reform law, Congress must reauthorize that law, and its Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program, by September 30, 2002. The 1996 law ended federal cash assistance to impoverished families and required recipients to work outside the home, with a 5-year lifetime limit placed on welfare benefits. Supporters hail the law's success, noting that welfare rolls have fallen 58% since 1996. Critics, however, point out that US child poverty, food insecurity, and homelessness rates remain among the worst in the industrialized world. In addition, while a majority of welfare 'leavers' did become employed--at least for some time--most jobs paid poverty-level wages, without benefits. Last fall, Rep. Patsy Mink (D-HI), working with the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund and other advocates, introduced a progressive TANF reauthorization bill (H.R. 3113) in the House. Senators Paul Wellstone (D-MN) and Jon Corzine (D-NJ) are expected to introduce a similar bill in the Senate. While these bills are unlikely to pass, supporters hope to garner enough cosponsors to be in a strong negotiating position with more conservative bills, including those introduced by or expected from Reps. Cardin (D-MD) and Herger in the House, and Senators Carper (D-DE), Bayh (D-IN), and Rockefeller (D-WV), in the Senate. In March, the Bush administration proposed sweeping changes--reportedly influenced by the Heritage Foundation--that would vastly increase work requirements and ignore most state, advocacy group, and welfare-recipient recommendations. The plan requires states to place 70% of welfare recipients in jobs, obliges them to work 40 hours per week (more than many US employees), drops current exemptions to the work requirements for those experiencing domestic violence or taking care of young children, continues to restrict immigrant benefits, and refuses to count most education and training as work. Aside from being harsh, costly, and unrealistic, the Administration's approach is profoundly undemocratic. Six years of experience with TANF--one of the most widely-studied federal programs in history--have yielded a clear picture of what reforms are needed. These include: counting education, training, and caregiving of young children as 'work,' 'stopping the clock' on time limits for those who 'play by the rules,' reinstating immigrant benefits, increasing funding for childcare and transportation, addressing domestic violence, maintaining a safety net for those unable to work, and making poverty reduction the goal of welfare reform. Many of these would benefit all low-income Americans, and lessen hostility towards those on public assistance. Instead, the Administration's approach ignores welfare recipients' call for education, childcare, and dignified treatment. It ignores the recommendations of academic researchers, religious leaders, policy-advocacy groups, state welfare administrators, and the National Governors' Association. It disregards the current economic climate of increasing unemployment, rising welfare caseloads, and overflowing food banks and homeless shelters. It plays on racist and sexist stereotypes of welfare recipients as 'lazy,' and implies that poverty is solely an individual problem. It does nothing to address the structural causes of poverty, including low-wage jobs; instead, it would force states to implement low-wage workforce programs. By freezing TANF funding while requiring states to implement new work programs that will increase childcare and administrative costs, it will exacerbate social tensions by forcing states to 'rob' other low-income benefit programs, such as child-care subsidies.
Public pressure remains the great unknown in the TANF equation.
Lobbying, voter registration drives, and grassroots direct actions
are all critical in overcoming the disconnect between what works,
what people want, and what lawmakers perceive as politically safe.
Faith groups and others need to raise a prophetic voice within
and beyond the TANF reauthorization struggle--a voice linking
domestic and global poverty issues; calling for a cut in the US
military budget; and envisioning true human security in which
all people live in healthy and safe communities, and no one is
left behind.
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