JEFFERSON CITY — Late last week, the Missouri Senate and House overwhelmingly approved Senate Bill 24, a comprehensive welfare reform bill sponsored by Sen. David Sater, R-Cassville. The bill creates and enforces strong work requirements to receive benefits, develops a sanction or penalty process for welfare recipients not cooperating with those work requirements, and puts more resources in place to help recipients overcome barriers to self-sufficiency. The bill also directs savings from these new policies to fund child care assistance for single parents, education assistance, transportation assistance and job training for welfare recipients.

“As with so many of our social welfare programs, the current TANF program is too often a disincentive to work and fails to provide the structure and path needed for recipients to reach self-sufficiency,” said Sen. Sater. “In Missouri, we are good neighbors and help one another out, but we also believe in personal responsibility and that a hand up — not a hand out — will lead to success.”

As part of the Welfare Reform Act of 1996, passed by Congress and signed by the president, welfare recipients are required to engage in a work activity. This is a broad definition that includes not only unsubsidized employment but also job searches and community services. Data released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services consistently puts Missouri at the bottom or near the bottom every year in work participation for welfare benefits. Only about 15 percent of Missouri’s welfare population is meeting current work requirements.

“Simply volunteering or providing community service, or participating in a job training program, can fulfill the work requirement and put that person on the path to the success and dignity that comes from providing for yourself and your family,” said Sen. Sater. “It is not too much to ask for recipients of public assistance to work or give back something for the benefits the taxpayers provide.”  

Senator Sater’s bill also dedicates a certain amount of TANF funds to Alternatives to Abortion and Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Marriage programs.

“When the War on Poverty began, 7 percent of American children were born outside marriage,” said Sen. Sater. “That number is 41 percent today. The breakdown of the family and the lack of emphasis on work are the main causes of poverty today. Senate Bill 24 is a proactive response to both of these problems.”

Just today, Senate President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles, and House Speaker John Diehl, R-Town & Country, signed Senate Bill 24, the final step before it proceeds to the governor. The governor will now have 15 days to decide whether to sign or veto the bill. If the governor vetoes the bill, the General Assembly would have the opportunity to override it before the end of the legislative session.

For more on this legislation or any other measures filed by Sen. Sater, please visit his Senate website at www.senate.mo.gov/sater.