A group of conservative Senate Republicans on Wednesday introduced a sweeping welfare reform bill that sets the stage for comprehensive change to the program if Republicans take control of Congress and the White House next year.
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said the Welfare Reform Act of 2011 would cap welfare spending at 2007 levels and save $2.43 trillion over 10 years by gradually reducing benefits from the nation’s 77 welfare programs, including food stamps.
DeMint introduced the bill with Republican Sens. David Vitter of Louisiana and Mike Lee of Utah. DeMint said he was introducing the bill to influence the supercommittee now crafting a plan to reduce the nation’s budget deficit by at least $1.2 trillion. The panel, which has a Nov. 23 deadline, is considering a mix of tax increases and spending cuts that could include reductions in entitlement spending.
“This supercommittee is considering cuts to Medicare and Social Security, but they are not considering modernizing and looking at the real spending that is coming from these 77 welfare programs,” DeMint said. “It makes no sense that we’re not even considering programs that have been increased so dramatically over the last few years, to the detriment of those we are trying to help. That is what we are trying to inject into the debate.”
DeMint’s bill calls for cutting the 14 percent increase in food stamp benefits that was included in the 2009 stimulus bill. It would restructure welfare benefits to steer them toward states with lower poverty rates, reversing the current policy of providing more funding to the most impoverished states.
The bill would not take effect until 2015 or when the unemployment rate, now 9 percent, drops to 7.5 percent.
The bill is similar to legislation introduced in the House earlier this year by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ill. Jordan’s bill, however, would include a work requirement for those who receive food stamps.
But neither bill is likely to come up during the supercommittee’s deliberations or any time during this Congress, even though Republicans already control the House.
Jordan’s bill, introduced in March, has yet to move through any House committee.
Instead, Republican welfare reform advocates are likely positioning themselves for a GOP takeover of both Congress and the White House in 2012.
“I think they see this as kind of the Republican statement on the second phase of welfare reform,” said Heritage Foundation research fellow Katherine Bradley.
Congress has not considered major changes to the welfare system since the 1996 welfare reform bill signed by then-President Clinton. While the law was hailed as a success, Bradley said Republicans will have to do a lot of convincing, even within their own party, to get both the House and Senate to attempt further reform, as many fear being accused of balancing the budget on the backs of the poor.
Also, many of the 1996 welfare reform leaders of the House and Senate GOP have long since left Congress, Bradley pointed out.
Jordan and DeMint, she said, “are going to have to explain to a new generation of GOP leaders why it’s necessary and build the support necessary to make passage possible.”
