Chuck Grassley: “The point here, Mr. President, is first, that it takes such a very, very long time to get a waiver. Second, I believe…”

“The point here, Mr. President, is first, that it takes such a very, very long time to get a waiver. Second, I believe state legislatures, in changing their welfare laws with the hopes of getting a waiver, are relatively less dynamic and venturesome than they would be if they had the sole authority to make a determination of what they wanted in welfare reform for their State. Just to show you how complicated it is to get such a waiver approved, a State can sometimes be caught getting waivers from four different Federal Departments: The Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Department of Labor. All four of these Departments are, in one way or another, responsible for programs that affect low-income families served by our current welfare system. However, there is no coordination among these Departments in granting waivers to the States.”