Coalition Letter Opposing "Superwaiver" Provisions

Dear Member of Congress,

We are writing to express our opposition to the “super-waiver” proposal that is currently moving through the House as part of welfare reauthorization. We believe that the super-waiver poses serious dangers to a broad cross-section of federal programs and the people they serve.

The super-waiver would give sweeping authority to cabinet secretaries to override congressional funding decisions and eliminate congressional standards and requirements for federal programs. Under this proposal, cabinet secretaries could approve requests from governors for state-wide waivers of many different federal statutes and regulations in multiple federal programs. We have a number of specific concerns about the impact that this far-reaching proposal could have, including that it would:

• Represent a massive and unprecedented transfer of power from Congress to the executive branch and the governors. Congressional authorizing committees have worked on a bipartisan basis on numerous occasions to set careful standards and policy for important federal programs. The super-waiver would effectively give governors and cabinet secretaries veto power over those policy decisions. The ability of Congress to negotiate legislation with the White House would also be seriously undermined if the Administration could then pick and choose which provisions would actually be enforced.
• Override the decisions of congressional appropriators. The super-waiver would allow the transfer of substantial resources from one program to another, effectively overriding congressional determinations about where federal dollars are most wisely spent. An Administration that disagreed with congressional funding decisions could simply team up with governors and override those decisions. Resources could also be redirected from less politically powerful geographic areas or groups of people, to areas or groups that a particular governor favored more.
• Undermine important protections for federal program participants. The super-waiver would permit the elimination of important protections for people served by federal programs, with no opportunity for input or oversight on the part of affected communities. Many vital requirements in programs covered by the super-waiver could simply be waived away.

We are not opposed to state flexibility in federal programs, where appropriate. However, this can be accomplished through state options or through waiver authority that is targeted to areas where it has been demonstrated that waivers may help states operate programs more effectively, rather than allowing sweeping waivers of federal standards across programs.

We urge you to oppose legislation containing this super-waiver proposal.