Real News' War Room: Welfare Reform Revisited

It was revealed late last week through a Health and Human Services memo that the Obama administration is planning to quietly reform, and as Republicans allege unilaterally gut, the 1996 Welfare Reform Bill. Under the new reforms, states would be allowed to request waivers for the work requirements for welfare recipients that were at the foundation of the 1996 bill.

“This is a brazen and unwarranted unraveling of welfare reform,” Michigan Republican and Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee  Rep. David Camp told the Washington Times. “This ends welfare reform as we know it.”

The Times notes that the new policy would allow states to launch their own welfare reform projects,during which they would not have to require that recipients work.

The Obama administration does not have the ability to waive the work requirement by themselves, but can waive another section of the act that includes language requiring states to enforce the work requirement. On "Real News" Tuesday the panel discussed the possible reform to welfare policy and the administration's legal authority to waive the work requirement. Watch a clip below: