House Republicans on Monday questioned whether President Barack Obama had the legal grounds to waive mandatory work requirements for welfare recipients.
“We are disappointed to see that the administration through this action and others seems intent not on helping to get Americans back to work,” said the 76 GOP legislators said in a letter to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius,
Fox News reports.
The one-page letter also said that the White House was intent upon increasing Americans’ reliance on welfare and other government programs.
The work requirements in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) legislation were signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996.
The letter notes that the work requirement had received bipartisan support in Congress and that President Clinton upon signing it said the law “honors my basic principles or real welfare reform.”
The changes were detailed in a July 12 “information memorandum” from HHS telling states they could seek a waiver from the TANF program’s strict work requirements, according to Fox.
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