By Shawn Bullard
media relations coordinator
NACo President Michael Hightower announced Oct. 9 that the nation's counties have successfully launched America's first welfare reform clearinghouse. The National Internet Clearinghouse (NICH) will allow anyone with access to the Internet to track welfare reform legislation and regulations at the county, state and federal level.
During the Washington, D.C. news conference, Hightower also took the opportunity to chide governors for their handling of welfare reform.
"We have certainly filled a void," said Hightower. "With NICH, we have created a system that will give counties the radar to see what welfare programs are working all over the country."
NACo hopes to alleviate some of the chaos associated with implementing the new welfare reform law by providing county officials, through NICH, with timely information on the impact welfare reform is having at the local level. A centralized database, NICH will allow never-before access to specific county, region and state welfare reform information within minutes. The Web site is located at http://www.naco.org/nich.
"If a county official wants to find out how many people in any county of the country are getting welfare assistance, NICH will help them find the number," Hightower said.
County officials say there is a great need for such a database since they expect to be held responsible for many services not adequately covered by the states. The database will help counties network with one another, as welfare reform is implemented state by state.
"In my own state of Georgia, we nearly lost $330 million in federal welfare money just last week because state officials were about to miss an Oct. 1 deadline. In Georgia, $330 million still is a lot of money. If the governor had been working with the counties from the very beginning, we could be further along in the process," he said.
Hightower blasted many of the nation's governors for not working closer with counties to implement welfare reform. (See President's Column, page 3.)
"We implore the nation's governors to stop bickering, complaining and blaming everyone else for all their recent troubles. The governors wanted this bill. Now they are going to have to pay for it."
Hightower asked governors, who have not already done so, to meet with county leaders to draft a plan of action to conform with the new law. He also assured governors that counties would not allow themselves to pick up the costs of providing welfare services.
County officials say they intend to pursue federal legislation during the next Congress and take other actions to change the most punitive sections of the new law.
"If we must, the nation's counties will join Republican New York
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in his suit to block welfare law provisions ending
food stamps and other public assistance for most legal immigrants,"
Hightower concluded.