House Republicans will move on several bills aimed at overhauling the welfare system Tuesday, including a few measures that have had bipartisan support in the past.
Rep. Kevin Brady, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, announced that his panel would mark up a package of “targeted, achievable” changes to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which is the federal government’s cash welfare program.
One of the bills, authored by Rep. Todd Young of Indiana, the Republican candidate for Senate in the state in 2016, would aim to test United Kingdom-style social impact bonds in the U.S. Under the bonds, or “partnerships” as they would be called in the Young bill, the federal government would reimburse states or cities for achieving certain social outcomes, paying them an amount less than the government otherwise would have paid for those outcomes but more than the state or local government ponied up. Under an earlier version of the bill, which was supported by Rep. John Delaney, D-Md., the federal government would have spent $300 million on the bonds.
Another bill, authored by Rep. Bob Dold, R-Ill., would allow the government to experiment with subsidies for low-wage workers as a possible pro-work alternative to welfare.
Other bills would change the goals and oversight of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to make it more pro-work. Republicans on the panel have said that favoring work over welfare is a priority.
House Speaker Paul Ryan has pushed for a focus on welfare reform in recent years, and Republicans are supposed to work on a broader legislative outline of their agenda as part of preparation for 2017.
Cash welfare, however, has made up a smaller part of the overall safety net since Bill Clinton signed a Republican reform bill in 1996. It is capped in dollar amounts, meaning that it is less significant each year as the population grows and inflation climbs.
Congress already has passed one significant safety net reform this year: In March, President Obama signed into law a bill creating a commission for evidence-based policymaking backed by Ryan.
