Congress Should Not Rescind Welfare-to-Work Funds

Publication Date: November 2003

Publisher: Center for Law and Social Policy

Author(s): Nisha Patel; Mark Greenberg

Research Area: Labor; Social conditions

Type: Report

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

This paper discusses a provision in an appropriations bill passed by the U.S. Senate that would rescind $211 million in Welfare-to-Work funding that states and localities had been authorized to spend over the next year. The loss of these funds would force states and localities to reduce or eliminate programs providing employment services for welfare recipients with serious employment barriers.

This paper urges the House-Senate conference committee to reject the Senate provision, because it would force reductions in needed services at a time when states cannot compensate for the lost funding. Moreover, states and localities were authorized to spend these funds over the next year; a rescission would violate the express terms under which states and localities were authorized to use these funds.