Rep. Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, is reportedly working to reform the nation's welfare system.
According to the
National Journal, the Wisconsin Republican has been working with fellow members of the GOP as well as Democrats since April on the legislation. A draft of the bill will be unveiled Wednesday.
Ryan's goal, according to the report, is to overhaul the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program that was created in 1996 by President Bill Clinton. Last year, it was reported that a record number of Americans — roughly 50 million — were
living under the poverty line.
The TANF program, according to data cited by the Journal, helps about 2 million families and costs about $30 billion each year.
Reps. Charles Boustany, R-La., and Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, helped Ryan put together the bill, and they will review it in a subcommittee hearing, the Journal said.
Among the pieces of Ryan's welfare legislation, according to the Journal, is the elimination of loopholes and the creation of an accountability system.
A
Washington Post editorial last summer argued that Ryan's ideas on welfare reform appeal to both sides of the debate.
Ryan spoke about the welfare system during an appearance on the CBS program "Face the Nation" in May.
"What the federal government's good at doing is providing resources. What the federal government is bad at doing is dictating solutions," Ryan said. "Rather than measuring success based on results, outcomes, how many people are we actually getting off of poverty?
"And what I think the federal government has done is displaced local problem-solving with top-down, one size fits all, and it's not working and so we need to go to an outcome-based approach and … overhaul our poverty fighting strategies to be focused on results and outcomes."
He made similar remarks in December, saying the
welfare system needs "an overhaul."
"We need an overhaul of our approach, and this is something that I'm going to spend a lot of my time working on, because I think it's absolutely essential if we want to reignite the American idea, which is the condition of your birth does not determine the outcome of your life in this country," Ryan said.
"Too many people don't see it, don't believe it, and we can fix that."
Watch the video here of Paul's interview with CBS.