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file: welfare went Andrea Kane 05/08/2000 10:19 AM Record Type: Record To: Karin Kullman/OPD/EOP@EOP, Bruce N. Reed/OPD/EOP@EOP, Eric P. Liu/OPD/EOP@EOP, Anna Richter/OPD/EOP@EOP CC: Margy Waller/OPD/EOP@EOP, Eugenia Chough/OPD/EOP@EOP Subject: welfare event Here's updated description of welfare event we've been trying to get on the the calendar. Welfare to Work Progress: We could: 1) Release new welfare caseload numbers (from September 1999) showing the welfare rolls have declined by 53% since the President took office and 46% since he signed the welfare reform law. The number of people on welfare has fallen to 6.6 million (down by almost 300,000 since the June 99 figures we released in December). We're now at the lowest level in 31 years (since 1968) and at the lowest percent of the population on welfare in 33 years (since 1966). 2) Announce that under the federal welfare to work hiring initiative led by the Vice President, the federal government has hired nearly 29,000 welfare recipients- more than double our goal to hire 10,000 individuals by the year 2000. (OPM is holding) 3) Announce that, in the four years since the official launch at the White House in May 97, Welfare-to-Work Partneship has grown to 15,000 business partners. This would allow us to highlight May 20th anniversary. 4) Push Congress to enact our iniatives that help families moving from welfare to work and other low-income working families to succeed: the 3 transportation initiative highlighted on 2/23 (food stamp vehicle asset limit, IDAs for cars, Access to Jobs), Fathers Work/Families Win, Welfare-to-Work extension for current grantees, housing vouchers, EITC, child care. 5) Urge states to invest TANF funds in helping families move to self-sufficiency, not to supplant state funds for unrelated purposes. 6) Release two interagency guidances as examples of how the ongoing success of welfare reform depends on everyone working together to help the 'hard to serve' remaining on the rolls to make the transition to work and to help those who have entered the workforce to succeed, move up, and stay off the rolls. a) Updated HHS/DOT/DOL transportation guidance explaining how states and communities can use TANF, Access to Jobs, and Welfare-to-Work funds for transportation and the importance of coordinating these resource. This is updated version of guidance we directed the agencies to do in 1998; it reflects final TANF rule, WtW amendments, latest Access to Jobs information, and increased focus on cars. (This is in clearance now) b) New HUD/HHS guidance for housing and welfare agencies on entering into cooperative agreements to implement the public housing reform law. The law 1) requires PHAs to make best efforts to enter into such cooperative agreements to target resources,