EFFECTS OF BLOCK GRANTS ON STATE IT
The House of Representatives passed a welfare reform plan on March 24. Highlights of the bill that affect state government information technology are as follows:
- Reduces spending by $66 billion over five years. This provision caps welfare spending. It's unclear how this might affect spending on IT systems. It does provide more flexibility to the states to design a program that more closely meets their needs.
- Replaces Aid to Families with Dependent Children with a Block Grant. This provides more flexibility to the states. AFDC is one of the primary funding sources for Family Assistance Management Information Systems (FAMIS). Each state is required to have a single statewide automated data processing and information retrieval system.
- Consolidates nine federal child care programs into a block grant. This could eliminate some requirements for separate automated systems for child care and child welfare.
- Strengthens child support enforcement. This change encourages states to suspend the drivers' and professional licenses of parents who refuse to pay child support. The legislation also establishes state and national automated registries of child support orders to help track all parents who should be paying child support. The bill specifies the frequency with which updates to the systems should be made.
- Encourages EBT. States who implement a statewide EBT project may elect to receive a grant for a low-income nutrition program in lieu of the food stamp program. Requires that EBT cards include a photograph of the members of the household to which the card is issued.
- Establishes a dedicated collections and disbursement unit for child support payments in each state. Only about 12 states currently have units of this type.
- Requires states to establish a state registry of new hires where employers report new hire information monthly to the state which then reports it to the federal government for a national new hire registry. This information will help track absent parents and allow for wage garnishes to satisfy child support orders.
- Requires the collection and use of social security numbers as a national identifier for child support enforcement for professional license applications, commercial drivers' licenses, occupational licenses, marriage licenses, divorce decrees, death certificates and support order or paternity determination. This information will be available to the state child support enforcement unit to help track absent parents. California already collects this type of information.
- Revives the enhanced funding rate for Child Support Enforcement Systems at 80 percent or the already established rate, whichever is higher. This provision limits the amount of assistance to states for these systems at $260 million through the year 2000.
- Requires states to suspend drivers', business and occupational licenses of persons owing past due child support.
GSA Multiple Award Schedule Changes
The Federal Register for Friday, April 7, included a notice soliciting comments on the mechanism by which state and local governments could purchase information technology products off the federal multiple-award schedule (MAS) program. This action is in response to changes included in the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act that allowed MAS purchases by state and local governments. There is be a 60-day comment period. GSA is required by law to implement this by October, 1995.
