I select the recently approved social policy TANF Extension Act of 2019. The reason for this policy’s implementation was the end of low-income families’ support in 2018, due to the budget negotiations. The TANF Extension Act of 2019 is a public bill, which is the “one that affects the public generally” (Sullivan, 2007, p. 6). This means, that such a policy should be applied to resolve the issues of citizens, but the original TANF policy’s focus was incorrect. The welfare recipients’ main problem is poverty, but the reason for poverty is not the lack of funds, but the lack of people having jobs.
While regarding the issue, congressmen and congresswomen acknowledged that the policy’s previous iteration was incorrect (the Chu, 2019). Instead of helping people fight poverty, the government gave them funds to stay there. The goal of the following bill was to extend the TANF policy, but instead, it should be revised. The program should concern more about looking into a personal connection with recipients and establishing a source of unemployment issues. Providing long-term jobs for people in need will be a far more beneficial solution for the citizens. Rearranging the policy is important, but the change should start with social workers.
A closer examination of the procedure that leads to providing financial support will point out the main areas of improvement for the TANF policy. The importance of social workers, who communicate and evaluate the potential recipients is often overlooked. These specialists are an essential mechanism in the government machine. They encounter people suffering from specific issues, so they have an opportunity of establishing more personal contact with citizens. To solve the problem government has to improve the social workers’ analytical skills process (Popple & Leighninger, 2019, p. 26) and increase the number of specialists.
References
Chu, J. (2019). Tax extension act of 2019 [Speech transcript]. U.S. Congress. Web.
Popple, P., R., & Leighninger, L. (2019). The policy-based profession: An introduction to social welfare policy analysis for social worker. (7th ed.). Pearson Education.
Sullivan, J., V. (2007). How our laws are made. House of Representatives. Web.