Photo by dbking.

Following his media appearance on NewsTalk with Bruce DePuyt, among others, this weekend’s Washington Post features an op-ed by Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry, calling for welfare reform. The op-ed builds off the legislation he has introduced, along with Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander, to limit the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) to 5 years of assistance.

“At present, the District is one of only a few jurisdictions in the country that spend local government funds to allow TANF aid to go on indefinitely. Unfortunately, this unsound provision in our local law has been coupled with a system that has failed our residents for years. The result has been to enslave residents in joblessness and dependency on the government rather than lifting them up and giving them an opportunity to achieve self-sufficiency through job training and employment,” Barry says.

Barry offers more concrete numbers behind his assertions: 17,505 families receive TANF assistance in DC, and over 40% of these families had received this assistance for more than 5 years. Barry calls for improvement of DC’s job training services, expanding it to 10,600 families that have been deemed “ready to work.” He says that the six existing job training vendors currently provide services to 6,900 families.

Of course, this being Barry, the op-ed peice didn’t come without controversy. Earlier this week, following an op-ed about the limitation of TANF, he apparently sent an email to editorial writer Jo-Ann Armao (cc-ing Don Graham and Katharine Weymouth of course) telling her to act more professionally, claiming her personal feelings of Barry had colored her column. Apparently this behavior will get you an op-ed in the Post.