Legislature asks Congress to enact Opportunity Grant Program

The Oklahoma State Legislature approved a resolution on the last day of the 2015 session calling on Congress to adopt a block grant proposal that would allow states more oversight of public assistance programs. The proposal was introduced in a June 2014 report entitled “Expanding Opportunity in America” by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Budget.

Sen. Rob Standridge, primary author of Senate Concurrent Resolution 31, said the federal proposal would make the delivery of public assistance more efficient for agencies and recipients.

“The report proposed the use of Opportunity Grants to streamline government functions and reconfigure the delivery of public assistance in our country to make the entire process more efficient,” said Standridge, R-Norman. “The proposal would permit states to consolidate various forms of public assistance into a single payment to recipients, providing both them and social service providers with more flexibility.”

Standridge said the proposal would also permit states to use state-based best practices to reform their social service networks.

“The current system is too expensive, inefficient and complicated,” said Standridge. “By approving the Opportunity Grant proposal, Congress would be allowing states to be more innovative in how they provide federal safety net programs and they’d be able to mold the programs to better meet the needs of their citizens.”

Rep. Jason Nelson was the House author of SCR 31.