WASHINGTON – Rep. Tom Graves (R-GA-09) issued the following statement after the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its latest report, confirming the Obama Administration circumvented the legislative process to waive work requirements in the 1996 welfare reform law. The 1996 law mandated that able-bodied adults should be required to work or prepare for work as a condition of receiving welfare. The bi-partisan welfare reform law was successful, substantially decreasing overall poverty and child poverty. In July, the Obama Administration unilaterally granted itself the authority to let the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) waive or override the work requirements in this law. The GAO report details that HHS previously said unequivocally that no authority exists to waive the work requirements in the 1996 law.

“The degree to which the Obama Administration will ignore the law of the land or circumvent the legislative process, as outlined in our Constitution, is truly frightening. If the President doesn’t like a law, he ignores it. If he can’t get what he wants through the legislative process, President Obama rules by decree. Waiving the work requirements in the 1996 welfare reform law is the Obama Administration’s latest attempt at an end-run around Congress. The work requirements are successful, they are the centerpiece of welfare reform, and the President cannot be allowed to flout the legislative process to undo them.”