Finding Common Ground to End the Cycle of Poverty

Although Pennsylvania has made incremental progress toward economic recovery, a large number of working families still remain trapped in a seemingly endless cycle of poverty. Too many workers are still living hand-to-mouth and paycheck-to-paycheck. Worse yet, even minor increases in income could cause them to lose eligibility for programs like child care assistance that make it possible for working parents to have a job in the first place. In these cases, workers who should be taking one step forward are instead pushed two steps back.  This is wrong for the people we are trying to help, and for the taxpayers who finance these programs. 

Working with constituents in my district, I have seen first-hand people who face these difficult choices. For example, I have a constituent who is a single mother working to provide for her two young daughters. When presented the opportunity to accept a promotion and modest salary increase from her employer, she faced the hard choice of either taking the promotion or remaining eligible for the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) and the school lunch assistance program that she relied upon to feed her children.  She made the hard choice to turn down the promotion only because, had she taken it, she would have become ineligible for the subsidies her family relied upon to survive. 
 
This counterproductive approach to public assistance programs led me to sponsor a Senate Resolution that will initiate a comprehensive study of current program guidelines and performance. In the next 12 months, the recommendations in the study will be available to help lawmakers chart a better way forward that truly promotes career advancement, professional development and financial independence. The end result should be a stronger strategic plan to reduce poverty, a path to lead working families toward self-sufficiency, and a reduction of the costs taxpayers must bear for these programs.
 
Welfare programs are often a lightning rod for criticism in the media and a deep source of political and ideological strife in Harrisburg and Washington. Instead of allowing these partisan battles to divide us, we must take advantage of this unique opportunity to unite toward a shared goal of improving the effectiveness and efficiency of these programs while offering working families a path toward financial independence. I am deeply thankful that this approach has drawn the strong bipartisan support of my colleagues in the Senate.
 
Within the next 12 months, the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee will present its findings and offer recommendations to improve public assistance programs. I am hopeful we can continue this spirit of bipartisan cooperation to help bring the cycle of poverty to an end for Pennsylvania's families.