Issue Position: Welfare Reform

Issue Position

Welfare Reform and Upward Mobility Act (S. 2015)
Poverty is not just the absence of money, but also the absence of opportunity. Today's federal anti-poverty programs place artificial restraints on those who are trying to get ahead, build careers and provide better lives for themselves and their families. Successful welfare programs are those that make poverty more temporary, not more tolerable, and we need to move current policy in that direction. The Welfare Reform and Upward Mobility Act will give all low-income Americans the opportunity to earn a good living and build a good life.
Attaches work requirements to SNAP benefits: 36 hours per week for individuals and 72 hours for families (a portion of which will be supervised work activation activities).
Focuses work requirements on Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWDs).
Rewards States that comply with work-activation requirements through grants that can be used to benefit individuals and families who are below 200% of the federal poverty level.
Penalizes States that do not comply with work-activation program requirements through a gradual reduction in SNAP benefits.
Reduces total welfare spending to 2007 levels over 3 years and caps spending at that level.
Creates a budget point of order against legislation exceeding the cap on total welfare spending.
Requires that the President include a report of total means-tested welfare spending in his annual budget submission.
Prohibits Federal funding of abortion.

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