Statement of Administration Policy: S. 514 - Jobs for Employable Dependent Individuals Act

(Revision)
(Senate)
(Kennedy (D) Massachusetts)

S. 514, as ordered reported by the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, would (a) amend the Job Training Partnership Act to establish an incentive bonus program for States which place recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), or Refugee Assistance in jobs which take them off welfare for one to three years, and (b) allow States to use summer youth employment and training resources for a year-round remedial training program, subsidized summer jobs, or both, for AFDC and SSI youth.

The administration supports the goal of reducing welfare dependency, and favors revisions to address the following major concerns:

Bonus Program:

The incentive structure would not achieve the bill's goals:

— the program would be administratively complex, requiring validation of each individual's prior work history to determine eligibility and elaborate data collection over three years to track all persons leaving the welfare rolls;

— providing bonuses to target State efforts on individuals who have been receiving AFDC or other benefits for two years might encourage some States to delay before placing these individuals in a work or training program;

— the "base" for bonus calculations does not reflect changing economic conditions, and States will receive substantial bonus windfalls for improvements in their overall economies rather than for special efforts undertaken for AFDC recipients;

— based on estimates by the Congressional Budget Office, the bonus program itself costs more than it saves.

Youth Employment Program:

This portion of the bill is based on an administration proposal that has been objectionably modified by the Committee and should be revised as follows:

— the grant allocation formula should be changed to target resources on those most in need of assistance — 50 percent based on economically disadvantaged youth and 50 percent based on AFDC caseload;

— eligibility under this program should be focused on youth in families receiving AFDC; it should not be expanded to individuals receiving SSI, which could substantially change the nature of the program; and it should not provide the option of a year-round program for economically disadvantaged youth other than those in families receiving AFDC; and

— the overly prescriptive and burdensome performance standards in the bill as reported should be deleted.