January 11, 2005, Update: New TANF Legislation Threatens 'Safety Net'

Last fall Congress approved a short-term extension of the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program. Under that legislation, funding for the program runs until March 31 of this year. Congressional leaders at that time sent clear signals that their only reason for passing yet another (their seventh) extension of the program without substantive changes was that they were eager to leave Washington to get on the campaign trail. There simply was not enough time to alter the program as they wished.

A new legislative session is now underway, and TANF is once again under threat. In the House of Representatives, Rep. Wally Herger, the Chair of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources, which has jurisdiction over TANF, has introduced a bill that is likely to be the vehicle for House action.

This measure is H.R. 240, the Personal Responsibility, Work and Family Promotion Act of 2005. Not surprisingly, it includes punitive provisions similar to those adopted by the House in the last Congress - higher work participation rates for states, increased work hours for benefit recipients (up to 40 per week, from the current 30), and reduced flexibility for states in determining what counts as work). As in the current TANF program, the provisions for child care are completely inadequate to meet the current need, despite the requirement for increased work hours. In the hope of gaining the support of key members of the Senate, Herger's bill also includes "marriage promotion" provisions.

A new threat to TANF has emerged in the form of the growing federal budget deficit. President Bush has indicated that all discretionary programs may be subjected to reduced funding in his budget proposal for the next fiscal year. TANF has been funded at $16 billion a year since it was enacted in 1996. The Administration has maintained that no additional money is needed for low-income child care subsidies because the TANF rolls have been cut in half over the last eight years. The same argument is likely to be applied now to justify cutting the TANF block grant to states below the current $16 billion.

While it is true that the TANF rolls dropped radically in the first six years of the program, it is also true that they have increased over the last two years in more than half of the states. Most states that once had surplus TANF funds they could use for child care, job training, and other programs to help beneficiaries become employable now report that all of their TANF funding is used up in cash benefits for recipient families. States will be extremely hard-pressed to fulfill their responsibilities if the TANF block grant is reduced.

For the past several years, the interfaith community has advocated legislation to reauthorize TANF that would:

- increase funding for child care;

- restore TANF and health care benefits for legal immigrants;

- give states increased flexibility in determining what meets the work requirement (such as expanding the time allowed for vocational education from 12 to 24 months);

- give states flexibility to waive or extend work requirements and time limits for people facing severe barriers to employment;

- reject increased work requirements; and

- reject any proposal that would allow states to waive federal rules in certain low-income programs, in the name of program coordination.

Make YOUR views known to your U.S. representative!

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Mary Anderson Cooper: mcooper@ncccusa.org

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