Rep. Tim Scott Co-Leads Letter to HHS Secretary Sebelius Regarding Welfare Work Requirements

Statement

Congressman Tim Scott (R-SC), along with Reps. Tom Graves (R-GA) and Steve Southerland (R-FL), led a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius regarding the gutting of welfare work requirements. The letter, signed by 76 House members in total, requests that HHS share what legal authority gives the agency the ability to allow for waivers to the work requirements as part of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.

"The way to improve the lives of those in need of assistance is not to promote a dependence on government -- it is by showing them, as I learned growing up poor in a single parent household, that you can think and work your way out of poverty," Scott said. "The TANF work requirements are effective in helping get families off the welfare rolls and into jobs; it defies reason as to why the current Administration would want to change them in the first place. This is compounded by the fact that it was made very clear upon passage of bipartisan welfare reform in 1996 that there was no room for waivers to the requirement."

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