WAIVERS The Hard Road to Flexibility, But Is It The Only Road Left?

Superwaivers: What Happened? President Bush proposed sweeping Cabinet authority to waive federal law Advocates began raising an army against the proposal House TANF bill delayed until waiver provisions proscribed markedly Senate TANF bill only whispers about waivers based on the past

Restrained House Version: Maximum to Expect Demonstration programs to show how waivers fix programs (ask Oregon) State entities apply to each affected Cabinet secretary for waivers Promise better performance, cost neutrality, evaluation and reports Secretaries have 90 days to approve or deny, more if added info asked

Limits in House Version Lists only 10 programs, including TANF, WIA, Job Service (but not UI), adult (but not vocational) education, low-cost housing, food stamps Excludes program purposes, civil rights, health or safety, labor standards, maintenance of effort, environmental rules from waiver

Other House Limitations No waiver of funding pass-throughs, or transfers from accounts No waiver of funding restrictions in authorizing legislation, only program requirements WIA waivers must conform to current exclusions for general waivers under the WIA statute (Sec.189(i)(4)(A)(i))

Waivers in the Senate Bill TANF only Extends still-operating AFDC waivers until October 2007 > If state has universal engagement > Only six states have such waivers Other states may accurately emulate these few waivers

WIA Waivers: Why Not? So far, requests address narrow issues Waiver process stalled last summer NGA letter last October spotlighted need for flexibility Emily wrote a letter to all governors Simultaneously, ETA began building Internet waiver utility (coming soon)

Other Routes to Flexibility Unified plans encouraged by ETA Plan modifications to satisfy partners Leverage resources around rigid WIA components in broad strategies Use existing flexibility in regulations Pretend you do when you don’t

Other Barriers to Flexibility