Davis Opening Statement at Worker and Family Support Subcommittee Hearing on Federal Support Programs
(As prepared for delivery)
Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this hearing so that our subcommittee can discuss the serious challenges facing working parents and what we in Congress should do.
The 30th Anniversary of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (or TANF) is a fitting frame for this hearing because the Republican leadership of the current Congress is making the same mistakes as the 1994 Republican leadership. Today’s Republicans are making life harder for parents who can’t afford child care so they can work and making it harder for all Americans who struggle to pay for basic necessities because Trump’s policies make everything cost too much, all while helping the very rich get even richer.
TANF rules are far from the most urgent problem facing Americans today. Ann Richards, a former governor of Texas, once said: “Life’s not fair, but government should be.” When they are struggling, the last thing parents need are threats, penalties, or piles of paperwork proving they are trying to obtain work. They are not lazy, and they don’t have time to work for free in exchange for help because they have laundry to do, homework to help with, and work that will pay for winter coats and sneakers. Parents need help finding affordable child care because there simply is not enough of the right child care for everyone who needs it. Caregivers need paid family and medical leave so they can care for their loved ones. They need good jobs, the skills to do them, and unions to protect them. And they need money to maintain a roof over their heads, keep their utilities on, buy needed medicines, and get through emergencies.
The most pressing problems for today’s families are the Trump economy and the Republican Congress. Republicans chose to cut off nutrition assistance for 5 million children and strip health insurance from 15 million people. And Republicans stand by while President Trump makes everything that families need more expensive – food, housing, medications, heat, air conditioning, child care, and gasoline. Meanwhile, these cruel cuts were used to pay for huge tax cuts to the richest Americans, including the President and his cabinet. This is not fair to struggling Americans.
In my state of Illinois, 150,000 people have lost the SNAP benefits they used to buy groceries. Alarmingly, 92,000 Illinoisans lost their health insurance after Republicans gleefully ended the ACA tax credits, and those who do have coverage are paying between 25 and 50 percent more for it, leaving less money for everything else. Gas costs close to $5 a gallon in parts of the state, a 50 percent increase during the Trump Administration. This is not fair to struggling Americans.
While regular Americans suffer, President Trump has increased his net worth by more than $2 billion dollars just since he returned to the White House. While Americans struggle, President Trump focuses on building a giant ballroom, surrounding himself with gold, destroying historical landmarks to entertain and grow the wealth of his friends and donors, and starting unnecessary war after war after war. This is not fair to struggling Americans.
Thirty years of TANF taught us that Congress’s job is to stand up for the people who sent us here – to help give everyone a fair shot despite the challenges that life presents. We were not elected to empower a President who doesn’t care about them. We were not elected to crush Americans during their most vulnerable times. This Committee and this Congress need to listen to and assist parents that are struggling, not build new hoops for them to jump through to secure help from their government. And the first step in any TANF reform is to work together on a policy focused on what families tell they need.
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