House GOP blasts Obama with welfare-reform data memo

A powerful House committee has charged President Obama with "dismantling" the work requirement of the landmark 1996 welfare reform law.

In a memo, the GOP-led Ways and Means Committee blasted the Obama administration for a policy announcement that could change how states administer welfare, saying the move would lead to greater poverty.

Under the new policy, federal waivers would allow states to test new approaches to improving employment among low-income families under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families law, or TANF. In exchange, states would have to prove that their new methods are effective, or lose the waivers. 

The GOP cited data showing welfare caseloads have decreased by 57 percent since TANF was enacted.

The administration's announcement will "undo policies that have led to more work and earnings and less welfare dependence and poverty among low-income Americans," the memo read.

The committee's chairman, Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), called the new policy a "brazen and unwarranted unraveling of welfare reform" after it was first announced on July 12. "This ends welfare reform as we know it," he said.

The presumptive GOP presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, also reacted strongly to the change, calling it "completely misguided."

But the leading Democrat on Ways and Means, Rep. Sandy Levin (D-Mich.), argued that Republicans' stance is hypocritical.

"This policy is pro-work, and it acknowledges that not all wisdom resides in Washington," he said in a statement. "Curiously, some of the same voices that pay lip service to the virtues of state flexibility now appear to oppose providing waivers under the TANF program. It turns out that Republican support for state flexibility is a one-way street."