July 23, 2003, Action Alert: Contacts Needed Re. TANF with U.S. Senators

The Senate Finance Committee has postponed the mark-up it had scheduled for July 23 on the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program.

The Committee's leadership and staff had drafted a proposal to which significant opposition has developed, and they now want more time to try to build support for their plan. This makes constituent action absolutely vital at this time.

The House passed its bill (almost identical to President Bush's proposal) several months ago. Please contact your Senators immediately and urge him/her to support a TANF reauthorization that would:

-- significantly increase funding for childcare;

-- retain the current work requirement of 30 hours per week for people with older children and 20 hours for those who have preschoolers;

-- give states flexibility to provide benefits for legal immigrants;

-- broaden the definition of what counts as work to include job search and education and training activities. In particular, participation in vocational education should be permitted for 24 months, rather than the 12 months in current law or the four months approved by the House;

-- give states flexibility to waive or extend time limits for families that face multiple or overwhelming barriers to employment; and

-- oppose a superwaiver provision that would let government waive the provisions of many programs for low-income families in order to simplify operations. Advocates fear this would lead to block-granting the Food Stamp program.

To contact your Senators, see their individual websites at www.senate.gov. Please do not write to them at their Washington offices because security concerns delay delivery, sometimes by months. Instead, telephone or fax their Washington Offices.

BACKGROUND:

The Republican leaders of the Finance Committee will base deliberations about TANF on an incomplete draft bill that they have distributed on a limited basis. Called the Personal Responsibility and Individual Development for Everyone (PRIDE) bill, the leadership measure closely mirrors the Administration's proposal and the bill passed earlier this year by the House. It would:

-- raise the work requirement to 34-37 hours per week;

-- increase the number of hours spent in core work activities to 24 (from the current 20 with another 10 in other appropriate activities);

-- require that parents of infants, toddlers, and preschool children work the same number of hours as parents of older children; and

-- count as participation in the work requirement only three months of each 24 spent in efforts to overcome barriers to work, such as drug or alcohol treatment.

The proposed legislation does not deal at all with:

-- extension of benefits to legal immigrants;

-- expansion of education and training opportunities;

-- additional provisions for removal of barriers to employment;

-- increased funding for child care; or

-- transitional medical aid for people leaving TANF.

Given the fact that the PRIDE proposal does not deal at all with many of the religious community's concerns and treats others in ways that would be detrimental to low-income families, this legislation should be opposed. A few days ago a group of 41 Senate Democrats signed a letter vowing that they would vote against any legislation that closely adheres to the Administration's TANF proposal, as the PRIDE bill does. If they all maintain this position, they will have enough votes to defeat the bill.

Finance Committee staff have told the advocacy community that funding for TANF is likely to be reduced in the future if the program is not reauthorized but continues to be extended quarter-by-quarter as it has been for the past year.

For more information, contact Mary Cooper, NCC