House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday announced “a new approach to fighting poverty” and unveiled the proposal as the first of a half-dozen planks in the GOP agenda.
The 35-page plan centers on giving community groups “on the front lines of fighting poverty” more power, rather than relying on the federal government. The proposal would install work requirements for those who receive welfare benefits and would mandate measuring whether federal welfare programs are actually successful at lifting people out of poverty.
“This is how you fight poverty,” Ryan, R-Wis., said at the rollout, which was held in the District of Columbia’s Anacostia neighborhood. “This is how you create opportunity. This is how you help people move onward and upward.”
Ryan and GOP lawmakers who helped write the plan held the event at the House of Hope residential treatment program. Ryan said he believes local programs like House of Hope are the key to helping communities struggling with poverty because they are more closely tied to the people who live there.
Federal dollars should be used to help these groups, he said.
“These are the people who are fighting poverty on the front lines and they are winning,” Ryan said. “If there is anyone who we should listen to, it’s them.”
Republicans say that despite trillions of dollars spent by the federal government, the nation’s 50-year war on poverty has not lessened the percentage of people living on government assistance.
Republicans pledged their plan would end wasteful spending on programs that don’t work.
“We are going to measure results,” said Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas.
Republicans know they are likely to meet stiff resistance from Democrats, who have traditionally opposed reinstalling the work requirements for welfare recipients that were put in place in the 1990s. Democrats are also likely to oppose shifting money away from federal programs.
“I hope that this will be the beginning of a positive discussion on the policy changes that are necessary,” said Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price, R-Ga. “Government needs to be humble enough to realize it doesn’t have all the answers.”
Democratic leaders said Tuesday they oppose the plan, which includes taking authority away from the federal government by providing communities with block grant funding.
“House Republicans have put forward proposals that require Americans to find work in order to access critical programs while consolidating programs like nutrition assistance, housing assistance, and child care into block grants,” said House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md. “Evidence shows that these proposals won’t help lift Americans out of poverty, and in some cases, they can push low-income Americans even deeper into poverty.”
