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Letter From Secretary Thompson
Wyden Hold Helps Win
Reprieve for Oregon Welfare Waiver, Saves Millions of Oregon
Budget Dollars
As deadline nears to extend “Temporary
Assistance to Needy Families,” Health and Human Services
Dept. won’t force costly changes on Oregon program
June 26, 2003
Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden
(D-Ore.) today announced that he will lift his objection to
legislation that would have forced costly, inefficient changes
in Oregon’s “Temporary Assistance to Needy Families”
(TANF) program, following the receipt of a letter from the Department
of Housing and Human Services (HHS) confirming that Oregon’s
ability to operate the state’s cost-effective TANF programs
will not be curtailed by the expiration of the state’s
current Federal TANF waiver. H.R. 2350, the House legislation
to which Wyden has objected, extends TANF without reauthorizing
Oregon’s waiver in the program. Wyden stated his intention
to block the legislation on June 12, after Oregon’s Department
of Human Services estimated that it would cost the economically
strapped state $42 million additional dollars to operate a non-waiver
TANF program for two years.
Wyden obtained a commitment from HHS Secretary
Tommy Thompson in the letter that Oregon will not be subject
to any penalties for operating welfare programs outside Federal
guidelines once the waiver expires on Monday. The ability to
continue welfare services as they are, uninterrupted, will also
allow Oregon to avoid tens of millions of dollars in additional
cost that would have been incurred to convert to a less efficient
welfare system.
“Oregonians are simply facing too much economic
hurt to take another massive budget blow and lose a successful
jobs program as well,” said Wyden. “I’ve long
been a supporter of welfare-to-work programs, but I felt compelled
to place a ‘hold’ on the TANF extension until I
could be sure this program would continue to work for Oregon
families and Oregon’s budget.”
Under its TANF waiver, Oregon’s JOBS program
and other initiatives have slashed welfare rolls by 60 percent
since 1994 – far above the national average for comparable
programs. The flexibility to run a successful TANF program is
particularly critical to Oregon at present, because the state
has the nation’s highest unemployment rate. Welfare rolls
have increased from 15,887 to 19,176 families in less than a
year even as benefits have declined.
Wyden says he will withdraw his formal objection
to H.R 2350 after final consultation with state welfare authorities.
Wyden placed a statement in the Congressional Record two weeks
ago to inform his fellow Senators of his intention to object
to the House bill, in keeping with his practice of publicly
announcing any “hold” on legislation.
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