“Communicating to Congress

on Welfare Reform”

Ed Hatcher

The Hatcher Group

COALITION ON HUMAN NEEDSTANF Media Strategies Meeting—Washington, DC

January 16, 2002

Between October 5 and October 25, conducted 25-minute interviews with

14 Senior Congressional Staffers Who Handle Welfare Reform

• Senate Finance Committee or Human Resources Subcommittee of House Ways and Means Committee.

• Members who serve on these committees.

• Even number of Republicans and Democrats.

Follow up phone conversations held with key committee staff January 7 to 10, 2002

Discussions Covered a Range of Issues • Specific ways that organizations can communicate

their findings on welfare reform more effectively.

• What groups are doing an effective job right now and what makes them effective.

• Timing of the debate on welfare reform reauthorization and when groups should go to the Hill.

Continued…

…Discussions cont.

• Messages that are likely to be effective with Members.

• What the political landscape may look like in 2002 and whether there will be opportunities for broad reform or just tweaking.

• Issues Congressional staffers think you should consider.

Important Lesson:Major Discrepancy in Level of Knowledge About Welfare Reform Among Staffers There is a small group of experienced staffers who:

• Understand the intricacies of welfare reform and the PRWORA.

• Close relations with specific contacts at the various research and policy organizations.

• Receive WIN newsletter and similar electronic updates.

• Attend staff briefings organized by Doug Steiger of the Senate Finance Committee and ask smart questions.

Many staffers, however, have a superficial understanding of welfare reform.

• High turnover of Congressional staff and the issues they handle.

• Each staffer manages other issues, including health care.

• Many members of Senate Finance Committee and Ways and Means Committee have joined since welfare reform passed in 1996.

ALL staffers, however, stress that they are:

• strapped for time

• pulled in different directions

• want findings presented in a clear, concise and compelling format.

“If an organization wants a member’s office to understand the implications of a new report what suggestions do you have?”

• Provide a concise summary of your conclusions (as a separate document) with charts, bullets, and graphs and information on how to download the full report from your website

Question asked:

Continued…

Take me by the hand and get to the point in a hurry. (House staffer)

…Suggestions for sharing reports cont.

• Make explicit the policy implications of your findings and how they connect to federal legislation.

Don’t tell me about the impact of welfare reform and children, and not tell what it means for the child care tax credit (Senate staffer).

• Whenever possible, present findings – perhaps in a cover letter – that shows you understand the Members, interests.

…Suggestions for sharing reports cont.

Continued…

Make sure the Member representing Wisconsin dairy farms knows that your report includes a sub-chapter on welfare reform and rural families (House staffer).

Highlight city and county data that are in a Member’s district (House staffer).

We love getting state-by-study studies. We want to know how we stack up (Senate staffer).

• Be sophisticated in your dissemination strategies.

Don’t mail your report and think that you’re done.

Target a group of key and relevant Members for personal meetings and extensive outreach.

Identify members (preferably a Democrat or Republican) who will send out your summary to the House/Senate with a “Dear Colleague”.

Organize a Congressional staff briefing (midweek and preferably when Congress is not in session).

Get an op-ed or news story on your report (even in 2nd or third tier newspaper) – to let staff know that there is “buzz” around your issue.

Make sure your report is posted on your website, is easily accessible, and “showcased” in welfare-related electronic newsletters.

…Suggestions for sharing reports cont.

“What organizations are doing the most effective job in communicating their findings

on welfare reform?”

• 10 out of 14 staffers said Brookings Institution as their first response.

Question Asked:

Continued…

Brookings wants to be the 10,000 pound gorilla on welfare reform and so far they’re succeeding (House staffer).

• CLASP and CBPP were also frequently mentioned – praised by both Republican and Democrats – for having very smart people and producing high quality reports.

…Effective Communications cont.

Continued…

He may not land up agreeing, but my boss calls Wendell all the time because he know his information is solid (House Republican staffer).

• Urban Institute – mail out great research but no presence on Capitol Hill.

• MDRC – great research but poor job of boiling down their findings and making them useful to staff. Need better summary materials.

• Heritage Foundation only conservative group mentioned. A couple of staffers said they were getting “a lot of good stuff” from Heritage, but not seen as a dominant player either by Republicans or Democrats.

…Effective Communications cont.

“What is Brookings doing on welfare reform that’s so effective?”

• High visibility – they’re all over the place with reports, Congressional briefings, issue briefs.

• Good job of framing welfare reform issues through issue brief series.

• Successful “branding” of materials which are attractive and easily recognizable.

Question Asked:

“In the months ahead, what resources do you anticipate using to get your questions answered

about welfare reform?”

• Research, policy, and advocacy organizations based in Washington D.C. (10 said these groups will be “very important”; 4 said somewhat important).

• Other important resources include:Committee staffCRS, GAO, HHSState agencies

• With notable exceptions, state welfare advocacy groups are not yet well known to Congressional staff in Washington D.C. Many could not name groups in their state or district who they would call, and do not see welfare reform as a “front-burner” issue for these groups.

Questioned Asked:

Personal Contacts Matter

• Of the eight who had personal contacts with advocacy and policy organizations, all said they “greatly value” those relationships and find them very useful.

• Of the six who didn’t have personal contacts; four said they would greatly welcome having such a contacts while only two said “personal contacts” were “no big deal.”

Timing Of Welfare Reauthorization

• Sept. 11 postponed consideration of welfare reform, but schedule is uncertain.

• Not too early to begin going up to the Hill.

• Hearings on welfare reform will likely be held when Congress meets in February.

• Mention of welfare reform likely in “State of the Union Address.” Unclear how much detail will be included in the Administration’s budget.

Opportunities for Broad Changes or Just Tweaking? Depends.

• Bi-partisan consensus or does welfare reform become defining issue for political parties as we approach the 2002 elections?

• With recession and squeeze on federal spending, does the fight center on funding, thereby obscuring other issues?

• How do the politics of highly charged issues around family formation play out?

What do you think foundations should know as they consider their investments

around welfare reform?

• Focus immediate attention on getting the Administration to include full funding for welfare reform in its budget

Question Asked:

If the Budget does not fully fund welfare reform our jobs are made immeasurably more difficult (Senate Democratic staffer).

Continued…

Issues for foundations to consider

• Work with the National Governors Association and other state groups to put pressure on the Administration

NGA was an important player in 1996 and will be again in 2002 (Senate staffer).

• Now that HHS comment period is over, focus on setting up meetings with White House, HHS and OMB

Continued…

• Don’t lead with a negative message about welfare reform – take note of its successes before highlighting the work to be done.

Nearly every Democrat on the Senate finance committee supported welfare reform in 1996. They don’t want to be told that they were a bunch of boneheads for doing so (Senate Democratic staffer).

Some local groups have come into argue that we should count parenting as work and that welfare reform has been a disaster and is throwing everyone into poverty. I meet with them, thank them for stopping by, but they have no credibility at all (House staffer).

Whenever possible, talk about the “working poor” and people “who play by the rules.” (Senate staffer).

…Issues for foundations to consider cont.

BREAUX EXAMINES WAYS TO IMPROVE WELFARE REFORM EFFORTS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 10/11/01

WASHINGTON (Oct. 11) – The Congress must update welfare laws to best meet the needs of the thousands of Americans who each year move from welfare to work, particularly in light of recent growing unemployment figures, said Sen. John Breaux (D-La.), the new chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Social Security and Family Policy.

"Many of us here were deeply involved in the welfare reform debate in 1996, and I think most of us would consider that law a success in moving Americans from receiving a government check to receiving a work check," Sen. Breaux said. "But I believe the future success of welfare reform depends on the continued support of both the public and private sectors to lift more Americans out of poverty and to help children who would be left behind."

Sen. Breaux is working with Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), the lead sponsor of the Strengthen Working Families Act, and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and other moderate members to improve upon the broad spectrum of federal programs that help working families make ends meet. The legislative provisions include:

"While welfare reform was about creating working families, our next challenge is to help strengthen these working families and permanently lifting them out of poverty even if our economy continues to slow down," Sen. Breaux said. "And, still too many children are left at home alone while their parents work; too many Americans work full time and still can't pay all their bills; and too many Americans have no transportation, health care coverage, child care or the skills and education to succeed in the 21st Century workforce."

Press Release Highlights"Many of us here were deeply involved in the welfare reform debate in 1996, and I think most of us would consider that law a success in moving Americans from receiving a government check to receiving a work check," Sen. Breaux said. "But I believe the future success of welfare reform depends on the continued support of both the public and private sectors to lift more Americans out of poverty and to help children who would be left behind."

"While welfare reform was about creating working families, our next challenge is to help strengthen these working families and permanently lifting them out of poverty even if our economy continues to slow down," Sen. Breaux said. "And, still too many children are left at home alone while their parents work; too many Americans work full time and still can't pay all their bills; and too many Americans have no transportation, health care coverage, child care or the skills and education to succeed in the 21st Century workforce."

Research and policy organizations should identify the organizations who are in agreement with

certain of their findings and then make sure that Congress is aware of that support.

When the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities and PPI make it clear that they agree on something, they can have their way with me. (Senate staffer).

A lot of these organizations would be so much more effective if they weren’t just representing themselves all the time. Think tanks and policy groups are part of coalitions on health care, why not welfare reform? (House staffer).

NEXT STEPS

• Set up high-level meetings with Administration officials (White House, OMB, HHS) immediately and in as broad a coalition as possible.

• Organize a coordinated effort in requesting time to testify before the Ways and Means Committee. Better to identify one or two spokespersons who can speak for a broad range of groups than to rely on a 150 separate requests that can ignored by the Republican majority. Identify “real people” who can speak from a recipients perspective.

Continued…

• Identify and promote grassroots coalition efforts in the districts of moderate Republicans and Democrats from the Ways and Means and Finance Committees. Ideally, members should receive the same message from their local districts as they do from advocacy groups in Washington.

• In all three of these efforts, specific policy requests should be made (stop the clock as opposed to “welfare reform should be about poverty reduction, not caseload reduction.” Welfare reform should not be painted as an unmitigated failure.

• Groups, like CLASP and CBPP, should continue their great outreach efforts on Capitol Hill and touch base with offices that have new and inexperienced welfare reform legislative assistants. Other research and advocacy groups should raise their profile on Capitol Hill and develop better, user friendly briefs and materials.

…NEXT STEPS cont.