Miller Speaks on the Need to Reform Temporary Assistance for Needy Families During Ways and Means Hearing

Washington D.C. - Today, Congresswoman Carol Miller (R-WV) participated in a Ways and Means hearing that focused on the misuse of welfare funds and the need to reform Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) non-assistance funds to ensure the money goes to families in need, connects people to work, and improves accountability.

Congresswoman Miller began her remarks by highlighting how TANF fraud has been committed within different states including West Virginia. She asked former professional football player, Brett Favre, to share his concerns about the misuse of these funds spreading throughout the country.

"I was reviewing the Government Accountability Office's (GAO) statement for the record highlighting the forthcoming report Chairman Smith and Chairman LaHood requested investigating TANF non-assistance spending. One thing that disturbed me was how widespread and repetitive TANF waste, fraud, and abuse is in the country and how weak our accounting systems are to catch and correct it. According to the GAO, 99 of the 155 audit findings have repeated for at least 1 year. West Virginia has had the same internal control deficiency finding reported for 15 years and nothing has been done to correct it. Mr. Favre, do you believe more scandals like the one you found yourself involved in is possible across the country if we don't act now to reform and bring more transparency and accountability to the TANF program?"asked Congresswoman Miller.

"100% absolutely. If it can happen in my state, it can happen in any state. You just spoke on the statistics and it's kind of frightening to be honest with you what is being wasted," responded Brett Favre.

Congresswoman Miller asked Sam Adolphsen, the Policy Director for the Foundation for Government Accountability, about what necessary steps the Federal Government should take to ensure that TANF non-assistance funds are going to the right places.

"TANF is our nation's primary welfare program, but it's my understanding that there are no federal guidelines about eligibility and that there are issues with how funding is allocated to states. Based on your testimony, we know that you believe TANF could be better utilized if that were the case. For example, West Virginia has historically had a higher poverty rate compared to the rest of the country. That would mean that my home state would need more funds to address the unique challenges and demographic of my rural community. What can we do at the federal level to make sure TANF money is actually getting to families in poverty and to states with the highest rates of poverty?" asked Congresswoman Miller.

"One of the things we could do to stop this from happening is to actually enforce some of the rules we do have. California has been out of compliance for 15 years with their work participation rate. [The Department of Health and Human Services] HHS has said that there's $1 billion in fines, essentially that they should levy, but they've written that down to $60 million. We have these audits, that you mentioned, that the GAO is looking at. The first and easy step is just to act on those basic oversight measures that we can already take. I think just the question of the funding is exactly the right question. How do we make sure there's money in these programs, right? There are unobligated funds, there are carryover funds, there is a large outlay of funding to the states. We need to make sure it gets targeted down to the folks who need it the most. We need to get into the rural areas of each state with the highest levels of poverty where they need some assistance to help get back on their feet. The way that can be done is by making sure states use most of that funding to meet the core objectives because those are going to target those in poverty directly," responded Mr. Adolphsen.

Congresswoman Miller proceeded to ask Mr. Adolphsen to identify what other possible factors to consider when deciding who is eligible for TANF funds.

"Is there any criteria other than 'poverty rates' that you believe could be prioritized when determining which families receive TANF funds, so we ensure that the neediest families [are adequately supported]?" asked Congresswoman Miller.

"It should be. There should be some income thresholds associated with this support and not just the cash support in the states, but also these other job assistance programs, education attainment. Again, California spends $1 billion a year on tuition for a higher education, for college. That is not directly for the purpose of the program when that has no income threshold on it and you have families well above the poverty line, 6 figures getting those tuition grants they're working in the system. That has to stop in order to make sure we can target the funds to those who are truly in need," responded Mr. Adolphsen.

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