A superwaiver provision is moving through the House that would bring a huge shift of power to the Executive Branch and states to override congressional authorizations and funding decisions for a variety of low-income programs.

Since being introduced as part of the TANF reauthorization bills earlier this month, the President’s "super-waiver" provision has undergone several significant revisions. The original provisions included in Rep. Wally Herger's (R-CA) H.R. 4090, and Rep. Buck McKeon's (R-CA) H.R. 4092, TANF bills allowed for governors to request a waiver of any statute or rule applied to any program in the Departments of Labor, HHS, and Education. All that would be required of the governor was a proposal showing how the waiver was neutral in cost. The Secretary of the petitioned department would have 90 days to sign off on the proposal, and if the state received no response within 90 days, the proposal could be deemed approved.

Estate tax repeal proponents, unwilling to postpone their agenda to eliminate the country’s most progressive tax, even in the face of an ever-increasing number of costly national priorities and an estimated $100 billion deficit for this fiscal year (see related story, this issue), have continued to push for permanent repeal at every opportunity.