Warren Davidson continues push to reform welfare programs

Congressman Warren Davidson said the country cannot combat a so-called war on poverty by spending more money.

So, the Troy Republican wants states to collect data on if individuals who participated in various entitlement programs still need other forms of federal or state assistance. This is part of his overall push on welfare reform.

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“When I worked in manufacturing, data was a vital component to solving problems,” said Ohio’s 8th Congressional District representative. “It showed me what worked best, what failed and, most importantly, what needed to be changed and how to get the root cause. The same science applies to solving problems here and to this program.”

The U.S. House approved Davidson's Welfare Transparency Amendment to the Accelerating Individuals Into the Work Place Act, which the bill received bipartisan support. The bill, introduced by U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Florida, would use $100 million from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to support state demonstration projects that provide wage subsidies to enable low-income individuals to enter and retain employment.

Davidson, who owns businesses in Miami and Butler counties, has been working on reforms with social and welfare programs, such as Supplemental Security Income, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, and employment and training programs. In March, he proposed creating a Benefit Reform and Alignment Commission, a 50-50 bipartisan group that would evaluate the 90-plus welfare programs.

Davidson, who represents Butler, Clark, Darke, Miami, Mercer and Preble counties in Congress, said more jobs can help reduce the poverty rate.

U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, D-Illinois, was one of 143 Democrats to oppose the amendment. He said asking for the information “is an invasion of the privacy of the individuals, with no research benefit.”

“The information the amendment requests is not relevant to what we are trying to learn from these demonstration projects, which is whether different approaches improve earnings and employment,” he said. “Collecting this information also seems burdensome for states, and would likely require them to ask participating employers to ask their employees inappropriate personal questions that they would not ask of any other employee.”

Shared Harvest Executive Director Tina Osso agreed that more data is needed, specifically data on those who left assistance and if they landed jobs or not. However, jobs is not a cure-all. In fact, she said poverty is growing and most jobs created in the past few years don’t provide a living wage.

”Many people who are receiving government assistance are already working, they’re just not earning enough money,” Osso said.

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More than 13 percent of the American population, or roughly 43.1 million people, were living below the poverty line in 2015, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That's roughly 15 percent increase from a decade earlier.

“We also know from the data being collected currently, the majority of recipients are families with children who have working adults, or disabled, or they’re elderly,” Osso said. “So, getting a job is not going to resolve the issue of being sick or old, and being unable to work.”

Maurice Maxwell, executive director of Family Services of Middletown, said while the additional data can help, “government can’t do it all” and it takes community involvement to help change lives.

“Our agency is heavily dependent on the relationship with the Job and Family partnership where individuals are required to give back, or to do job training at sites like Family Services in order to get the benefits they receive,” he said. “I do think the work requirement is successful in and of itself … where they can hone their skills and develop and give back to the community.”

Those who are required to do on-the job training, Maxwell said, “are getting bona fide job training opportunities” that can help those unemployed get a job and away from using entitlements.

And Davidson said that is the goal, to make sure people are using the entitlement programs as a hand up instead of a hand out.

“That’s the goal,” he said. “It’s not a silver bullet to magically end poverty, but it will help people reintegrate into the workforce.”

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