Welfare Re-Authorization Fails in the Senate

The Senate failed to pass the reauthorization of the 1996 Welfare Reform bill last week. Regardless of the bill’s noted importance, members of the Senate could not agree on many issues within the bill. The Senate began debating the House version of the welfare reform bill (H.R.4) last Monday and gave it a final vote on Thursday. During the debates, Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) floated the idea of expanding the 1996 charitable choice provision to the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG.) The Welfare Reform bill of 1996 was the first to enact “charitable choice” provisions, the basic authority regarding government support to faith-based social service providers. The provision was inserted by then-Senator John Ashcroft and cleared without any real debate. Both congressional chambers have kept the charitable choice language in their respective reauthorization bills. However the expansion of charitable choice into SSBG, the largest federal social service program and addresses the needs of children and families, the elderly, and vulnerable adults, would be new. To date, no obstacles exist for religious organizations to get involved in SSBG programs. In fact, religious organizations are among the main providers of services with federal SSBG dollars. So why would Santorum draft an amendment to expand charitable choice provisions into a program that has a clear track record of partnering with faith-based organizations? Santorum’s amendment (SA 2997, Page S3492), if adopted, would implement a provision from President Bush’s faith-based initiative. President Bush has not been able to get his faith-based initiative through either chamber of government and therefore, has been slowly implementing it with his executive powers (executive order and agency rulemaking.) However, in his 2004 State of the Union address, Bush expressed his desire for Congress to legislatively pass the faith-based initiative. Working to incorporate some of Bush’s initiative, the Santorum amendment would allow religious organizations receiving federal funds through the SSBG program to use those monies to discriminate on the basis of religion when hiring. A coalition of religious, civil rights, labor, education, health, and advocacy groups quickly responded to the threat of Santorum’s amendment by sending letters to Senate members and organizing a briefing for Senate staff to learn more about the issue. In both forums, the coalition asked Senators to please vote no on the amendment if it should ever come to a vote. The coalition argued that the amendment would not provide more or new federal dollars for the care of the poorest in the nation being served by the SSBG program. Instead, Santorum’s amendment would for the first time ever allow federally funded service providers to discriminate against their employees on the basis of religion with federal funds. Santorum did not introduce his amendment on the Senate floor during the debate. The 1996 welfare bill expired on Sept. 30, 2003 and has been running on continuing budget resolutions since. A continuing budget resolution is a temporary fix that provides the program with the same amount of funds from its previous fiscal year. The reauthorization bill has been stalled because of many issues that could not get consensus. Some of these issues include: work requirements placed on recipients of aid; rules garnering the amount of work-related activities, such as job searched, and community work activities; amount of time that can be devoted to training, education, and family needs; the amount of child-care funds that should be provided as part of this law; and the raising the federal minimum wage. It was this last issue that many felt killed the Senate consideration recently. The Republicans did not want a vote on an amendment from Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) to raise the minimum wage.
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