OPINION EDITORIAL

June 3, 2004

P.R.I.D.E. on the line

New report shows success of WorkFirst, but politics puts reforms at risk

Booker T. Stallworth
As a conservative, it is not often that I get to quote former President Bill Clinton. It is even rarer that I get the chance to do so approvingly.

In his 1997 State of the Union Address, President Clinton stated, "There is a third piece of unfinished business. …Congress enacted landmark welfare reform legislation, demanding that all able-bodied recipients assume the responsibility of moving from welfare to work. …Now I challenge every state: Turn those welfare checks into private sector paychecks. …We passed welfare reform… [but] no one can walk out of this chamber with a clear conscience unless you are prepared to finish the job."

Well said.

Welfare reform was one of the major accomplishments of the 1990s, and one of the most important and successful reforms in U.S. government history. Since enactment of the legislation, welfare rolls have decreased by more than half—from more than 4.4 million to just over 2 million families.

The historic 1996 law, however, expired in 2002 and is now operating until June 30th under its sixth temporary extension.

The Personal Responsibility and Individual Development for Everyone (PRIDE) Act would extend those reforms, which allow states to impose new rules and work requirements in order to reduce welfare rolls.

Unfortunately, politics-as-usual has taken root in the Senate, causing the bill to stall. Both sides seem to have forgotten what welfare reform was truly about, and instead used the generally-accepted, successful reforms as a launch pad to additional pet projects. The House Republicans included hundreds of millions of dollars to promote President Bush's "Healthy Marriage Initiative."

Senate liberals successfully blocked the bill, proposing amendment after amendment, culminating in one that would have raised the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7 an hour.

The importance of ending government dependency seems to have been lost on both parties, but not on the American people. This is an issue that touches the day-to-day lives of many families, and successful reforms are making a positive difference.

Welfare reform strategy has always focused on state experimentation and flexibility, and this is the source of its success. Using provisions of the law that encourage innovation, many states have attempted to promote greater self-reliance among welfare families by tying benefits to continued schooling, training, and work, and by limiting the amount of time recipients may receive benefits. Under the law, states truly became "laboratories of democracy."

One of those laboratories was here in Washington where, in 1997, the state launched its welfare-to-work strategy, WorkFirst.

The WorkFirst study group—researchers from the University of Washington, Washington State University and the Department of Social and Health Services—examined the effects of welfare reform in Washington on employment and welfare recipients' opinions about the WorkFirst program. The results were published in three new reports released late last month.

Based on more than 3,100 interviews, drawn from the welfare rolls in March 1999, October 2000 and October 2001, the studies found, in part:

• The number of families on welfare in Washington dropped 41 percent since WorkFirst began, from nearly 97,000 in 1997 to less than 58,000 in April 2004. Over 140,000 parents have left welfare and stayed off.

• Parents who received welfare in 2001 and participated in WorkFirst activities were more likely to be employed and had higher wages than those who did not.

• The average wage for families on assistance, including those not working, ranged from $500 to $700 per quarter, while those who left welfare for work or other reasons earned higher wages, about $2,000, during the same period.

Nearly 70 percent of respondents had a positive impression of WorkFirst. Furthermore, the studies found that about two-thirds of current and former welfare recipients said they believe Washington's WorkFirst program helps promote self-sufficiency, and an equal number said their quality of life had improved during the year prior to the survey.

WorkFirst and similar programs all across the country are making a difference in people's lives, giving many a feeling of self-worth and achievement that was absent in some families for generations.

Prior to the welfare reform achieved in 1996, states measured success by the number of people on welfare they could "assist." Now, success is measured in the number of people working, learning new skills and lifted out of poverty and dependence. However President Clinton was right. The job of ending welfare dependency is not over, and no member of Congress should have a clear conscience unless he or she is prepared to finish the job. States need to know the rules under which they will be working.

Taxpayers and low-income Americans have a shared interest in escaping the state plantation; both are slaves to a system that robs individuals of their human dignity and liberty. They must have the tools necessary to break those shackles. The future of welfare reform is too important to be left to political gamesmanship.

Booker Stallworth is the communications director and a welfare policy analyst for the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, an Olympia -based policy research organization dedicated to individual liberty, free enterprise and limited government.

Contact: Booker Stallworth | Communications Director | 360-956-3482

Evergreen Freedom Foundation P.O. Box 552, Olympia, WA 98507 Phone: (360) 956-3482, Fax: (360) 352-1874 Email: effwa@effwa.org