February 6, 2003

U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Representative:

On behalf of the 153,000 members of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), I urge you to vote "NO" on final passage of the Personal Responsibility, Work, and Family Promotion Act of 2003 (H.R. 4). Instead of improving the lives of poor families, the bill would make it more difficult for low-income mothers to acquire the tools they need to be successful parents and breadwinners.

Provisions to increase work participation rates to 70 percent and require recipients to be engaged in narrowly-defined work and other activities for 40 hours a week would force states to abandon successful programs and create new, more costly, "make-work" activities whose failure to move recipients into stable, private sector jobs is well-documented.

The rigid one-size-fits-all approach would be especially detrimental to the efforts of families struggling to overcome barriers to employment, such as mental illness, substance abuse or domestic violence. Three months of "rehabilitation" is simply inadequate for the majority of these families. However, if provided individualized packages of services and reasonable accommodations in meeting program rules, a significant majority can move from welfare to work.

The bill also ignores the needs of the welfare system, itself. The welfare workforce is ill-prepared to handle the bill's increased requirements. Contrary to popular belief, these workers are not professional social workers. The majority of welfare caseworkers are former eligibility technicians with only high school diplomas or college degrees unrelated to social service delivery. Investments must be made to help these workers acquire the skills needed to effectively assist families in becoming self-sufficient. State fiscal problems make such assistance critical.

A welfare system can be created that helps participants get and keep jobs with family-sustaining wages and benefits, provides individualized assistance to families with barriers to employment, and is staffed by well-trained workers, but none of that is likely to occur if H.R. 4 is enacted. Please vote "NO."

Sincerely,

Elizabeth J. Clark, PhD, ACSW, MPH
Executive Director