By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 29, 2006

The Bush administration announced regulations yesterday that would put new pressure on states to move more welfare recipients toward self-sufficiency, in part by substantially tightening the definition of what qualifies as work and job training under federal law.

The rules were drafted to help enforce a measure President Bush signed into law in February. For states to receive credit for welfare recipients' participation, people in the program would be required to be enrolled in education and job training programs directly related to a future job. The rules also call on states to verify the hours welfare recipients work in community service and other jobs.

Administration officials and other supporters said new rules are necessary if the nation is going to continue reducing welfare rolls, which have shrunk nearly 60 percent in the decade since landmark changes in federal welfare law were enacted in 1996.

The 1996 law, which created the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, set what lawmakers thought were tough work rules requiring half of adult welfare recipients in each state to go to work or be enrolled in job training. But the law allowed the percentage to be reduced as states sharply decreased welfare caseloads.

The caseload reductions "have been so large that, in many respects, they've overshadowed the reality that there are still many, many families that are trapped in government dependency and are not being challenged to find work," Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said in a recent speech to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative public policy organization.

Leavitt added that states reported that 60 percent of "able-bodied adult TANF recipients had not participated in even a single hour of activity related to work or preparing for work over the course of a month."

The proposal would require 50 percent of adult welfare recipients on the rolls to be working or be in job training programs by October, or states would face financial penalties.

State government advocates and social service groups criticized the proposed rules -- which are scheduled to go into effect in October, pending public comment -- calling them inflexible and shortsighted.

"On its face, this is a very prescriptive application of the welfare law," said Elaine M. Ryan, deputy executive director of the American Public Human Services Association. "We're surprised there is so much micro-management coming from the federal government on a block grant that was designed to be a flexible source of funds to meet the needs of the most vulnerable members of society."

Ryan said that the narrower definitions of job training in the rules would reduce the ability of states to move welfare recipients into higher-education programs. It also would allow states to place recipients in substance abuse and mental health programs for only six weeks while still counting them as being enrolled in job readiness programs.

"The regulations are really a sea change as to how the states deal with the federal government," said Sheri Steisel, director of human services policy for the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Helen Blank, director of public policy at the National Women's Law Center, said the rules would require states to come up with much more money for child care, which she said is underfunded by the federal government. "Low-income women may desperately want to work, but without the ability to pay for child care, it won't matter," she said.

Robert E. Rector, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said the regulations amount to no more than a "rebooting" of the 1996 law. Moreover, he said, they accurately reflect the measure reauthorizing the welfare law that Bush signed into law in February.

"The problem was that the 1996 act was self-obsolescent," Rector said. "The rolls went down more rapidly than anyone anticipated, and it meant that for years states met their standards and didn't have to do anything. The rules now say, 'You're starting the race all over again.' "