Legislation & Politics

Letter to members of the House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means opposing the budget reconciliation program cuts

October 25, 2005

Dear Representative:

On behalf of the1.4 million members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), I urge you to vote against the budget reconciliation program cuts under the Committee on Ways and Means' jurisdiction to be considered tomorrow, October 26.

There can be no more graphic display of the misguided and immoral priorities of the House of Representatives' leadership than this package of cuts which is being justified in the name of fiscal responsibility to reduce budget deficits caused by huge tax cuts for large corporations and the wealthy.

This package of cuts will hurt the most vulnerable in our society: abandoned children, children from troubled homes, low-income single parent families struggling to maintain financial stability and advance in the workforce, and the disabled. It represents an extraordinary retreat in the federal government's responsibility for our weakest citizens and thrusts that responsibility squarely on state and local governments that are not likely to have the resources to fill the funding gap.

While all of the cuts are counterproductive and anti-family, the estimated $3.8 billion cut in the child support program is one of the hardest to understand. The child support program consists exclusively of "administrative funds." They pay for the personnel that seek out absent parents and ensure that they make their child support payments. Without them, single parent families will be deprived of $5.4 billion in child support payments over the next five years and $16.8 billion over the next 10 years; many will be forced to seek alternative assistance from government welfare programs and sporadic and unreliable help from charities. This program promotes parental responsibility to children and reduces the need for government assistance for destitute families.

Other proposed cuts also are shortsighted and will worsen the lives of children and their families. The package reduces the already inadequate $1 billion increase in child care funding under the TANF program to $500 million and eliminates $1 billion in High Performance Bonus payments that reward states for job gains and employment retention. Yet the legislation retains unrealistic work requirements for poor parents, creating a set of bad choices for them and TANF offices. TANF recipients will have to decide whether to leave their children home alone in order to work, and state and local governments will have to decide whether to run expensive unpaid workfare programs at their own expense or limit the number of families receiving help. It is hard to escape the conclusion that the real unstated objective is to abandon these families entirely.

AFSCME also strongly opposes both the proposed overturning of the Rosales ruling that allowed more children living with relatives to become eligible for federal foster care assistance, and the attempt to limit federal support to families caring for their relative's children by imposing strict licensing requirements in a shortened timeframe. These policies especially will hurt children abandoned by their parents and make it harder for their relatives to assume responsibility for their care.

Taken as a whole, this "reconciliation" package demonstrates the inevitable outcome of the misguided fiscal and policy priorities pursued over the last four years. It's time to call a halt to them, and we urge you to start now by voting "NO" tomorrow.


Sincerely,

Charles M. Loveless
Director of Legislation

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