Dive Brief:
- President Donald Trump’s administration Thursday rolled out a sweeping plan to reorganize the government, including a proposal to consolidate the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program into the Department of Health and Human Services. As part of the proposal, HHS would be renamed the Department of Health and Public Welfare.
- The plan is not likely to go anywhere fast as it needs a sign-off from Congress to make it a reality. Democrats are already raising concerns that combining multiple social safety net programs, including Medicaid and nutrition assistance, into one department is a stealth bid to dismantle such services.
- The plan, which tallies more than 130 pages, suggests the creation of a permanent “Council on Public Assistance” within the new combined department, which would have the statutory authority to set uniform work requirements across multiple programs.
Dive Insight:
Tacking work requirements onto social programs has long been a GOP priority. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under Trump has encouraged states to set such rules for Medicaid, arguing the idea will help move people off of the program.
Republicans argue the mandates can help recipients transition off government assistance, but critics argue such actions only hurt people when they need help the most and cite data that most who are able to work are already doing so.
“The administration is attempting to reorganize an agency while trying to dismantle the very services it’s intended to provide. Embarking on a massive waste of taxpayer dollars to rearrange basic assistance that millions of our most vulnerable Americans rely on, including SNAP, will only make it harder for people who need help to get it,” Senate Finance Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said in a statement Thursday.
The Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan organization focused on good governance ideas, warned that the reorganization plans by several presidents have fallen short.
“When our government fails to meet citizen expectations, the problems typically stem from people and culture issues, such as shortages in mission-critical talent and the performance and management skills of senior leaders, not how an agency is organized,” Max Stier, Partnership for Public Service CEO, said in a statement.
The Council on Public Assistance, which would be comprised of multiple agency heads and chaired by department leadership, would be used to consolidate policymaking for social programs.
“Creating this Council would further break down silos between agencies operating public assistance programs by establishing an interagency coordination and support structure to carry out the welfare reform agenda of the Administration with high-level visibility,” the plan states.
The plan also lists a number of modernization efforts currently underway within the Department of Veterans Affairs, including changes to the VA's EHR system and consolidation of the department's community care initiatives.
The agency's new EHR system, named MHS Genesis, is being implemented by Cerner based off the company's current work with the Department of Defense. On the community care front, changes to those programs that expand private sector options for more veterans are currently being rolled out by the MISSION Act, signed into law last month.
Acting Secretary Peter O'Rourke said in a statement that these changes at the VA are part of "the largest transformation and modernization effort in recent history."