"Superwaiver" Proposals in the Welfare Reform Debate

RS21219 -- "Superwaiver" Proposals in the Welfare Reform Debate

Updated March 3, 2006

Summary

Welfare discussions in the current and past two Congresses have included consideration of an Administration-proposed "superwaiver" that would enable states and localities to waive rules of various welfare-related programs. Formally called Program Coordination Demonstration Projects, these waivers were included in the 109th Congress in long-term welfare reauthorization bills approved by a House Ways and Means subcommittee and the House Education and the Workforce Committee (H.R. 240), the Senate Finance Committee (S. 667), and in the House version of budget reconciliation (H.R. 4241). A scaled-down version of welfare reauthorization was included in the final agreement on budget reconciliation -- the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-171, S. 1932) -- but did not include provisions related to the superwaiver. Moreover, the Administration's FY2007 budget package contained no further reference to this proposal. This report will be updated to track any further legislative activity. (For a broader discussion of the issue, see CRS Report RL32859(pdf), The "Superwaiver" Proposal and Service Integration: A History of Federal Initiatives, by [author name scrubbed].)