Executive Calendar

Floor Speech

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Mr. DAINES. Mr. President, this week, I have the honor of recognizing Hannah Nieskens of Jefferson County for her tremendous service to Montana veterans and her great impact on Montana's educational system.

Hannah grew up spending time in Montana with her family and then was awarded the Presidential Scholarship to attend Montana State University in Bozeman. After graduating with honors from MSU, Hannah began her career of education in the Billings School District.

During her 4 years in Billings, she met her now-husband Kelly, who served in the Army, and they fell in love. Hannah and Kelly now have three children--two daughters, Charity and Hope, and their adopted son Joshua. Joshua is currently serving overseas in the Air Force.

Hannah has a distinguished career in education. She has served her community as a teacher in Billings, the dean of Wolf Point High School, and the principal at Northside Elementary School. Now she is the 6-12 principal in Whitehall.

Last year, Hannah was named Montana Principal of the Year, and now Hannah is one of three finalists for the 2019 National Principal of the Year.

In addition to Hannah's career devoted to education, Hannah has a passion for serving Montana veterans. After Kelly was severely wounded while serving in Iraq, Hannah began volunteering to help other veterans in the community navigate the VA. Hannah even earned a law degree to be better prepared to assist Kelly and other veterans struggling with the VA.

Hannah currently serves as the Montana Dole Fellow, where she advocates on behalf of Montana's military families. She has great pride in calling Montana home, and we are lucky to have her.

She has made a lasting impact on her community and the entire State, both through her service to our veterans and by shaping our future generations in the school system.

I congratulate Hannah on all of her success and look forward to seeing all that she will accomplish for Montana in the future. TANF

Mr. President, once widely viewed as successful, our Nation's primary welfare-to-work program is now broken. It will soon expire. I rise to highlight my efforts to get it working again.

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program--it is also called TANF--was created with bipartisan support back in 1996. In fact, at its core, it recognized that finding and maintaining a job is the most effective way for healthy, working-age parents to go from government dependency to self-sufficiency.

After TANF became law, welfare caseloads plummeted, child poverty declined, and employment among low-income, never-married parents went up.

As we debate modernizing the TANF Program, we should not forget the doom and the gloom predicted by some liberals when the original 1996 reforms were debated. Perhaps most famously, our former colleague, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, predicted that TANF would result ``in children sleeping on grates, picked up in the morning frozen.''

Let me tell you something: Those critics were wrong--very wrong.

Yet more than 20 years after the historic 1996 reforms, we should be clear-eyed that the TANF Program suffers from neglect and loopholes, both of which are undercutting its fundamental work requirements.

Today, very few States are meeting the work participation rate that is required by law. My State of Montana is one of the many that is falling short. The law calls for 50 percent of welfare enrollees to be engaged in work. In Montana, they are reaching only one-third.

In addition, many States are using TANF dollars for purposes unrelated to work, and the program lacks the transparency and the accountability metrics that are critical to its success. Because of these shortfalls, too many low-income parents are not finding sustainable jobs, and too many children are at high risk of suffering the hardships of poverty.

Part of the problem is that TANF has been significantly reformed only once since President Clinton signed it into law. In 2006, Congress reauthorized and strengthened the program, thanks to the hard work of then-Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and his Republican counterparts in the House. Since its expiration in 2010, however, TANF has received a whopping--this is so DC--24 short-term reauthorizations. Talk about kicking the can down the road. Efforts to address the persisting concerns about the program have not crossed the finish line. This must change.

For starters, revitalizing TANF is important to sustaining our most robust economy. Right now, there are 7 million job openings that remain unfilled--7 million job openings that are unfilled. The good news is that employers across our country are clearly looking to hire, jobs are being created, and the economy is strong. But as my good friend, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, has said: ``We have gone from a country asking, `Where are the jobs?' to one asking, `Where are the workers?'''

A big part of the answer is that millions of able-bodied, working-age Americans are completely on the sidelines. A strong, revitalized TANF Program is urgently needed to close this jobs gap and empower more Americans to find work. This is exactly what my bill, the JOBS Act, would do.

Building on legislation that passed the Ways and Means Committee earlier this year in the House, the JOBS Act demands positive work outcomes rather than simply meeting ineffective participation rules. It requires States to engage with every work-eligible individual and establish a plan that will result in a sustainable job. It holds States accountable for their work outcomes, not activities--we are talking about outcomes, about results--and it bolsters the transparency of every State's performance.

It doesn't just demand work; it enables work. It substantially increases funding for childcare services that would be essential to holding a job. It provides struggling beneficiaries with additional time to get the mental health or substance abuse treatment they need before holding a job and making that a realistic goal. It adds apprenticeship as a permissible work activity, alongside job training, getting more education, and building job readiness skills.

My bill targets funds to truly needy families by capping participation to families with incomes below 200 percent of the Federal poverty level.

The JOBS Act is built on the recognition that there is dignity in work. A job can start low-income parents down the path toward achieving lifelong dreams. A job can create opportunities that are simply out of reach without one. A job can be the springboard to higher wages and upward mobility. A job can rescue young children from the challenges of poverty and despair. In short, finding sustainable work can create better lives for low-income parents and children alike.

Last, my bill extends marriage promotion and fatherhood initiatives because healthy, intact families are also part of the solution.

There are approximately 4,000 families in Montana who are currently on TANF. Over 90 percent of them are from single-parent or zero-parent homes.

I cannot speak more highly of the single families and the extended family members who are tirelessly taking care of their children on TANF. But we should continue to encourage voluntary participation in local marriage support programs; we should continue to encourage fathers to step forward and be the men that their children strongly need. The reason is simple: Healthy families remain the bedrock to strong communities and a flourishing society.

The JOBS Act equips and empowers low-income families toward a better future.

I urge my colleagues to reclaim the bipartisanship that created historic reforms a generation ago and support this important legislation to make our largest welfare-to-work program actually work again.

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