Utah Reauthorization Project
P. O. Box 270090 Fruitland, UT 84027-0090
(435) 548-2630 FAX (435) 548-2438
wrw@ubtanet.com       www.slcap.org/UREAP/ureap.htm

March 11, 2005

Senator Orrin Hatch
104 Hart Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senator Hatch:

Since April 2001, the Utah Reauthorization Project (UREAP) has worked closely with your staff specialists on Welfare Reform, and more recently, Workforce Investment Act (WIA) reauthorizations. We have all worked diligently on the issues--frequently using Utah's experience as a model--to make TANF and related programs truly assist families work toward self-sufficiency and safe-guard their children's well-being. We have greatly appreciated your commitment to refine the 1996 Welfare Reform law, and now also WIA, through reauthorization. Today, we are alarmed at the 2006-2010 Budget Resolution that will soon be before you on the Senate Floor.

The approach of Senator Gregg's Budget Resolution is disturbing. We believe it promises to turn back the clock on all of our hard work to assist families at the same time as it will increase--not reduce--the already record budget deficit. We are writing to urge you to vote against Senator Gregg's Budget Resolution and do everything in your power to ensure that whatever Budget Resolution does pass allows hope for a positive future. UREAP participants are committed to helping families move forward to a better quality of life. As a nation, we must recall that increasing human misery and leaving vulnerable people with progressively fewer options has, through out history and the world over, destabilized communities and societies.

UREAP has worked hard with Becky Shipp, Jace Johnson, and now Jenny George to support the Senate Finance Committee process as you have deliberated, crafted, and passed two TANF Reauthorization bills. We continue to hold out hope that countable months of vocational education and training can be increased and that other barrier removal activities can be expanded. Additional child care funding added to the Finance Committee Chairman's Mark is extremely welcome and we thank you for your role in accomplishing that. We are pleased to begin working with you on your new assignment on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee and appreciate our exchanges with Matthew Sandgren regarding WIA reauthorization.  Knowing of your experience in the Congressional job training arena, we hope you can help ensure that basic education and job training reforms are implemented to help workers succeed. But all of our efforts to make improvements --to better assist families with barriers to employment, to reduce poverty and focus on enhancing child well-being, to help families get somewhere rather than simply get off welfare--are rendered ineffective if necessary funding for essential programs is reduced or eliminated.

If the Senate Finance Committee is instructed to cut $15 billion over five years, surely Medicaid will suffer the most, and TANF, EITC and SSI will be at risk. Shifting the burden for the high cost of health care to states by cutting Medicaid leads us away from a real solution to the problem and lowers our overall national health status. We can expect higher costs for emergent care. Other cuts in the Finance Committee lead us away from our progress on self sufficiency and gains in child well-being will be lost. Vulnerable seniors and people with disabilities will also suffer.

If the HELP Committee is instructed to cut $8.6 billion over five years, it will jeopardize education and training programs that workers need to improve their lot. If allied programs like Head Start, Community Services Block Grant, HEAT and Weatherization, nutrition and education programs are also reduced, there will be serious consequences for those least able to bear the burden. The communities where these people live will share the cost, as well, as the quality of life of their neighbors declines.

UREAP did not support the initial Bush tax cuts because of the resulting revenue losses. Utah citizens have spoken in the past about the choice between tax cuts and cuts in essential services and we imagine their views have not changed. In 1988, a ballot initiative to cut taxes was defeated by a substantial margin. We are not economists, but not only are current tax cuts coupled with dramatic cuts in essential services, but they raise the nation's enormous deficit by reducing revenue. The costs of war in Iraq and Social Security reform are "off the budget," but in need of revenue. We understand that the Senate is not willing to give the President all he wants in extending the tax cuts and we applaud that. However, we ask that you help roll back tax cuts even farther.

It seems wrong to us to use the reconciliation process to push program cuts forward while exempting tax cuts. It is critical to give central consideration to the long-term impact of revenue losses from the tax cuts beyond five years. It is essential to ensure that the American people understand that the impact of program cuts beyond the first few years will balloon, multiplying the harmful effects of abandoning our past efforts to help people be able to support themselves and their families.

We are alarmed by what we understand is a point of order proposed in the Budget Chairman's proposal. This would prohibit consideration of legislation that would increase mandatory spending by $5 billion or more in any of the four 10-year periods from 2015 through 2055, without offsets, unless there are 60 Senate votes to waive it. This point of order could stop serious health reform initiatives, yet be ignored for tax cut proposals. That hardly seems like good public policy.

It is hard to imagine the harm to the social services infrastructure that the Chairman Gregg's Mark would cause if passed as presently proposed. Utah would be among those most heavily impacted.

Please use your influence to modify the Budget Resolution or oppose it if that is your only choice. We have all worked together to address TANF and WIA Reauthorizations in ways that will be positive for families, children, and communities. Please don't allow the proposed Senate 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 Committee (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)