March 22, 2004

Congressman Chris Cannon
118 Cannon Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Congressman Cannon:

Since April 2001, the Utah Reauthorization Project (UREAP) has worked with you and you staff specialist on the reauthorization of Welfare Reform. More recently, we have also been in contact over Workforce Investment Act reauthorization. We have all worked diligently on the issues--frequently using Utah's experience as a model--to make TANF, WIA, and related programs truly assist families work toward self-sufficiency and safe-guard their children's well-being. 

Today, we are alarmed at the 2005 Budget Resolution that will soon be before you on the House Floor. It promises to turn back the clock on all of our hard work and make it impossible for Utah and other states to effectively assist families to become self-reliant, now and in the foreseeable future. Our national priorities for stronger families, a better prepared workforce, and enhanced child well-being appear to be fading from view--along with our commitment to sound fiscal policy--in favor of tax cuts that will benefit only a small proportion of the citizenry.  We are writing to urge you to vote against Congressman Nussle's Budget Resolution and to do everything in your power to ensure that whatever Budget Resolution does pass allows hope for a positive future for Welfare Reform and other programs families need to move forward. 

The specific dollar impact of five-year caps on discretionary programs outside homeland security are difficult to predict, but it seems certain that, even under the best of circumstances related to the war on terrorism and continued war, substantial cuts in almost all programs needed by seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income, struggling individuals and families will be forced. Unlike a similar mechanism instituted in 1990, these "belt-tightening" caps on discretionary spending are not designed to reduce the staggering budget deficit that threatens our national solvency. As we understand it, the purpose of these cuts is to make possible tax cuts for the wealthiest segment of our population at a time when circumstances confronting most ordinary citizens and their state and local governments are grim, and our nation is at war on various fronts. 

As you may recall, UREAP has taken formal positions in support of the following issues. All of them are now threatened by the proposed Budget Resolution:

• An adequate budget for Medicaid. The Nussle Resolution will require somewhere around $2 billion to be cut from Medicaid.
• Increased funding for child care. This is necessary not only to allow coverage of a larger number of children in need of care and specialized care that is currently not available to any signficant degree, but also to cover increased work requirements that appear certain to result from any TANF reauthorization measure that ultimately passes. The Nussle Resolution promises the opposite effect.
• Assistance for struggling, working poor families to meet basic needs. Cutting in the housing voucher program is going the wrong way.
• Help for people with disabilities, both to overcome barriers to employment and to assist those with disabilities to achieve an acceptable quality of life. Caps on domestic discretionary programs will thwart progress on both counts.
• Positive TANF reauthorization. Despite some rather significant disagreements between the Administration/House approach and that of the Senate Finance Committee, both demonstrate agreement that some changes in the TANF law are needed and those changes will cost money. The proposed Budget Resolution provides nothing, meaning that funding all TANF reauthorization changes will require cutting other programs on top of the funding cuts just discussed above. This is an untenable situation, in our view.

Please use your influence to modify the Budget Resolution or oppose it if that is your only choice. We have all worked responsibly and diligently together to address TANF Reauthorizations in ways that will be positive for families, children, and communities. Please don't allow the proposed 2005 House Budget Resolution to undo the gains of the past several years and prevent us from doing what we know needs to be done.

Thank you for your consideration of our concerns. Please call on UREAP if we can assist in any way.

Sincerely,
 
 

Shirley Weathers and Bill Walsh, UREAP Staff

for the Utah Reauthorization Project members:

Active Re-Entry, Price, (Southeastern Utah)
Box Elder Family Support Center, Brigham City, (Box Elder County)
Bringing Hope to Single Moms, Logan, (Cache and Box Elder Counties)
Community Action Services, Provo, (Utah, Wasatch, and Summit Counties)
Disabled Rights Action Coalition (DRAC), Salt Lake City, (Salt Lake County)
Family Support & Children's Justice Center, Price, (Carbon County)
Housing Authority of Salt Lake City, Salt Lake City, (Salt Lake City)
International Rescue Committee, Salt Lake City, (statewide)
JEDI for Women, Salt Lake City, (statewide)
League of Women Voters of Salt Lake, Salt Lake City, (Salt Lake County)
Legislative Coalition for People with Disabilities, Salt Lake City, (statewide)
Mental Health Association in Utah, Salt Lake City, (statewide)
Multiple Sclerosis Society, Salt Lake City, (statewide)
New Hope Refugee and Multicultural Center, Salt Lake City, (Salt Lake City)
Options for Independence, Logan, (Northern Utah)
Peace & Justice Commission, Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake, Salt Lake City, (statewide)
People Helping People, Salt Lake City, (Salt Lake County)
Salt Lake Community Action Program (SLCAP), Salt Lake City, (Salt Lake and Tooele Counties)
Tri-County Independent Living Center, Ogden (Weber, Davis, and Morgan Counties)
United Way Executive Directors Association (UWEDA), SLC, (Salt Lake County)
Utah Children, Salt Lake City, (statewide)
Utah Community Action Program Association (UCAPA), (statewide)
Utah Issues, Salt Lake City, (statewide)
Utahns Against Hunger, Salt Lake City, (statewide)
Ute Tribe Social Services, Ft. Duchesne
Valley Mental Health, Salt Lake City, (Salt Lake and Tooele Counties)
Walsh & Weathers Research and Policy Studies, Fruitland
Your Community Connection, Ogden, (Weber County)