During my ten years in the Arkansas State Senate, I served as a member of the Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee, which wrote Arkansas’s welfare law.  It is important that whatever new welfare reform legislation comes out of Congress this year not only continues to move recipients away from a dependency on welfare and toward self-sufficiency, but also does so in a way that does not simply push them into dead end jobs that will not allow them to become economically independent.  And it must not financially cripple our state governments, especially in today’s uncertain economic times where many state programs are already facing drastic budget cuts. 

Unfortunately, the bill that the House narrowly passed on Thursday, a Republican sponsored measure, imposes a massive new un-funded mandate on our states, one that could cost Arkansas as much as 40 to 50 million dollars.  While this bill requires welfare recipients to work additional hours, it provides almost no additional resources to states to pay for the additional costs of childcare, transportation, and other services to allow welfare recipients to work the required hours.  Our state is already in a financial crisis.  We cannot afford for the federal government to put us in an even deeper hole here in Arkansas.

Democrats in the House offered an alternative that would have not only strengthened the current work requirements and given those on welfare the tools to successfully make the transition from welfare to work, but also provided states with the funding and the flexibility to implement a new welfare reform law.  I am disappointed that the Majority in the House did not approve this common-sense approach.  As this proposal now heads to the Senate, I hope my colleagues will carefully consider the impact of this legislation and pass a responsible welfare reform bill, for the sake of our state and our working families.