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2000 SESSION

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001180432
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 253 AMENDMENT IN THE NATURE OF A SUBSTITUTE (Proposed by the Senate Committee on Rules on February 14, 2000) (Patron Prior to Substitute--Senator Hanger) Encouraging the Department of Social Services to consider developing a voucher system for payment of services provided to clients.

WHEREAS, the Department of Social Services has as its goal the provision of services that provide basic sustenance, protection, and skills for those persons in need to become self-sufficient individuals; and

WHEREAS, the Department collaborates with many agencies, organizations, groups, and individuals who contract to provide these services; and

WHEREAS, while the Department must ensure the health, safety, and welfare of its clients in the various programs where they are receiving services and while the Department must also meet fiscal and performance outcome measures in order to maintain a high quality of services, in many cases, the services are reimbursed through the use of vouchers presented by clients; and

WHEREAS, the use of vouchers provides a freedom of individual choice from among programs that meet certain criteria and promotes the development of responsibility and choice by the client; and

WHEREAS, in order to become self-sufficient, clients must become self-reliant, and the use of vouchers is a reliable method of training clients to choose and evaluate the programs best suited to them; and

WHEREAS, the federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996 has attempted to bring more service providers into the delivery system to provide more program choices to clients, and this concept is being expanded on the federal level to other social programs; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the Senate, the House of Delegates concurring, That the Department of Social Services be encouraged to consider developing a voucher system for payment of services provided to clients; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the Senate transmit a copy of this resolution to the Commissioner of the Department of Social Services in order that she may be apprised of the sense of the Virginia General Assembly in this matter