Welfare reform has been listed by top GOP leaders in Congress as a priorty for the current session. Maine’s Congressional Delegation takes differing views on the issue.
Republican U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin called for welfare reform in his successful election campaign in Maine’s 2nd District. He applauds the GOP leaders for setting it as a top priority for this session.
Poliquin says welfare programs have become a way of life for too many Americans.
“Remember, the goal of public assistance is not to keep individuals stuck in government programs, because that is a road to nowhere, that’s a road to perpetual poverty,” he says. “We need to help these people that really need help, take care of themselves and help people become independent.”
Poliquin says while it’s important to keep a safety net in place for those who are disabled and can’t work, “Those folks that are able to work, for example, should work and if they cannot find work they should do community service or they should further their education.”
The last major overhaul of federal welfare reforms was 20 years ago, in 1996, the year Susan Collins was elected to the Senate.
Collins says the work requirements in that law have been weakened over the years and that Congress should bring back the principle of requiring work unless the health or age of the person makes working impossible. It also exempted those who were in a job training program.
“We need to get back to the core provisions of the ‘96 law,” she says. “That law was a good one. It empathized and recognized the dignity of work and the importance of ensuring that people have the skills that they need.”
Collins says as efforts to overhaul welfare program emerge this session, she will focus on making sure the workforce investment boards, community colleges and the university system are working together for those on welfare.
“With the education, training and skills that they need to be successful and stay here in Maine,” Collins says.
“I certainly hope if the Republicans put forth proposals at the Congressional level around welfare reform they are realistic proposals, they are not just across-the-board cuts to food stamps and other benefits that are really critical to people here in Maine,” says Democratic U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree.
Pingree says the arguments around welfare reform are often too simplistic. She says it’s important to remember that there are a lot of working people who receive welfare benefits.
“You have a lot of people who are currently in jobs and qualify for food assistance or housing assistance just because they don’t make enough at their current job,” Pingree says.
U.S. Sen. Angus King was serving as the governor of Maine when the 1996 federal changes were enacted. And he says that while Congress sets the broad parameters of welfare legislation, it’s the states that administer the programs through rules and laws.
“We have to be careful that we are humane and support people when they are in a tough situation and we want to be compassionate, but not have welfare programs become a consistent way of life,” King says.
He says he will carefully review any welfare reform proposals that come from Republican leaders. And he says it’s important that welfare serves a specific role in society.
“It should be temporary, and necessary to get people through a difficult situation,” he says, “but not a way of life.”
Neither House Speaker Paul Ryan nor Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell have announced when they will be rolling out their welfare reform proposals. But both have said they want want to see meaningful reforms passed this session.
