Survival News est. 1986 Survivors, Inc.
...the voices of low-income women
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Welfare Legislative Update by Elizabeth Toulan The next phase of welfare reform in Massachusetts will be determined by the state Legislature’s willingness to recognize its power and responsibility to enact changes to our state welfare law to meet the needs of the Commonwealth’s most vulnerable families, and in the light of reauthorized federal welfare law. In addition, the Legislature must make certain critical changes to our state welfare law before the expiration of our federal welfare waivers on September 30, 2005. An Act Relative to Responsible Welfare Reform (S. 71, House Docket No. 3777), which has been co-sponsored or supported by a majority of the members of the Legislature, offers the best, viable plan for Massachusetts. Congress was supposed to reauthorize the federal welfare law back in September, 2002, but has continued the old TANF program instead through a succession of Continuing Resolutions, signed by President Bush. There are two major welfare bills pending in Congress. Neither the Senate bill (S. 669) nor the House bill (H.R. 240) has been debated in their respective chambers. Both bills are very similar to their predecessors from the previous Congress with regard to work hours (34 to 40 hours per week for most parents) and the activities that count as work (a combination of work, limited vocational education and training, and barrier removal activities, such as mental health or substance abuse treatment, for example, for different periods of time). Federal funding for welfare likely will remain unchanged, which is a cut in light of inflation, and will include only modest increases in child care funding. The Romney Administration claims that Massachusetts will have to make all parents work 34 to 40 hours a week, including up to 14,000 parents currently exempt from work requirements and time limits, to avoid losing over $40 million dollars in federal welfare funds. A majority of our state Legislators know otherwise, which is why they are supporting the Responsible Welfare Reform bill. This bill will protect Massachusetts from losing federal funds while also ensuring that families currently exempt from work requirements and time limits remain exempt, and therefore eligible for cash assistance and programs and services that will promote family well-being. Under existing and proposed federal welfare laws, states have much more flexibility in how they spend state, as opposed to their federal, welfare funds. The Responsible Welfare Reform bill uses this flexibility to protect the state’s bottom line as well as its most vulnerable families. The bill would create a Separate State Program of cash assistance for families headed by: - parents with disabilities; - parents needed to care for family members with disabilities; - caretakers age 60 or older; - women in their last trimester of pregnancy; - parents whose youngest child is between the ages of 1 and 2; or - teen parents attending school. Under the bill, the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) would be required to use some state funds, which it must spend anyway in order to draw down federal welfare funds, on cash assistance for these exempt families. This plan does not require any additional state spending. DTA would then use its existing TANF funds to pay for any programs and services which previously were funded with the state monies now going to pay cash assistance for exempt families. Governor Romney proposed sweeping changes to our state welfare program in his Fiscal Year 2006 budget proposal, such as increased work requirements and the elimination of most exemptions. The new House leadership, under Speaker DiMasi and Ways and Means Chairman DeLeo, insists that House members respect the committee process and refrain from any effort to change state law through the budget. As a result, the House budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2006 does not include any changes to our state welfare law. We will know by the end of May whether or not the Senate budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2006 will include a provision creating a Separate State Program. If it does, leaders from the House and the Senate will decide during their budget conference whether or not to include this provision in their budget recommendation to the full House and Senate. Our federal welfare waivers, which have shielded Massachusetts from federal work requirements, are set to expire on September 30, 2005. Accordingly, we ought to have a Separate State Program in place for currently exempt families no later than September 30, 2005. If the Separate State Program is not created as part of the Fiscal Year 2006 budget, then the Legislature must move swiftly to create it through the committee process by enacting An Act Relative to Responsible Welfare Reform well before September 30, 2005.
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Victimized By Roselyn Berry Sirens pierce my senses as police circle streets in the distance ...There's another life missing. Attempting to erase repeated visions of bullets flying through the darkness This is the farthest I’ve gone into trying to find a valid solution to the pollution that clogs minds and steals answers, shatters dreams and crushes the spirits of dancers. Like a cancer spreading through the streets of society, it keeps reminding me that THIS is reality. One tragedy after another, forced to say goodbye to countless numbers of my brothers Mothers left helpless I'ts not chosen. They've been dealt this. Forced to become rebellious and fight against the lies that they tell us ...Of wealth vs. poverty Sad how jealousy can lead to my own wanting to murder me Questions of "how could life burden me with so much pain?" At one point I came across some understanding. But ignorance was demanding more of me ...as if I wasn’t already consumed by it. Ruled by it, I became a victim. And so, with nothing more left to say, no words to soothe my sorrow, I go to bed broken hearted and prepare my soul for the tomorrow that follows addiction, pain infliction and prison; A cheated American Citizen. And they say that I do this to myself. Well correction Mr. Politician, I AM A VICTIM All Rights Reserved Including the rights to reproduce this document thereof in any form
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