March 8, 2004, Update on Temporary Assistance to Needy Families

In the House

Please call your Representative -- you can find contact information on your Member’s website at http://www.house.gov -- and urge him/her to oppose H.R. 3848, a bill that would extend the current Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program for only three months – through June 2004 – but would make a substantive change in the existing program.

H.R. 3848, proposed by Rep. Wally Herger (R-CA), Chair of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources, would increase the work participation rates states must meet to avoid federal penalties. States now get credit for reducing their caseloads below what they were in 1996 when TANF was enacted. If a state’s caseload is 20% lower than it was then, it is allowed to reduce the percentage of its caseload that is required to work by 20 percentage points.

If this provision were eliminated, as proposed by Herger, over 40 states would have to increase their work participation rates in order to avoid penalties. This would pose a significant burden on states. Many have increasing welfare caseloads now because of the stagnant economy. With unemployment staying stubbornly at over 5.5% and few entry-level and low-skill requirement jobs being created, those on TANF who can readily go to work have already found jobs. Those who remain on the rolls of the program are generally people who have few skills or who face significant barriers to employment, such as lack of child care or transportation, mental or physical health problems, or lack of literacy or English proficiency. The bill provides no additional resources for child care or job training, despite requiring more people to work.

An analysis of the Herger proposal, including a chart showing its effect on each state, can be found on the Coalition on Human Needs website at http://www.chn.org under "What's New."

Background

Funding for TANF will expire on March 31 unless legislation to extend it is approved. Authorization for the program expired in August 2002, and it has continued to operate through a series of short-term resolutions passed by Congress.

The House passed a bill to reauthorize TANF for five years in February 2003. The Senate Finance Committee approved its version of TANF reauthorization in September 2003 but faced so much dissension in the full Senate that the measure has not yet been scheduled for a vote.

Normally, legislation providing for a short-term extension of an existing program would simply amend the end date for funding, in order to allow Congress time to complete action on a full reauthorization bill. In the case of H.R. 3848, however, Rep. Harger has chosen to include a highly contentious amendment to the current program through a provision that would begin the process of eliminating the caseload reduction credit. This feature rewards states for reducing their welfare rolls by decreasing the percentage of TANF recipients they are required to have working within two years of qualifying for benefits.

The effect of Harger’s amendment would be to require more people to work, without providing any additional child care or job training assistance. Since these issues are precisely the ones over which the Senate has failed to reach consensus, it appears that Harger’s intent is to put pressure on the Senate to act without taking the necessary time to resolve these issues.

In the Senate

The Senate Budget Committee is expected to mark up its version of the Fiscal Year 2005 budget the week of March 1, with debate on the budget resolution possible the week of March 8. The Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over TANF, has approved a reauthorization bill that calls for $1 billion more in child care assistance for low-income families over five years, a number regarded as wholly inadequate by the faith community.

The Finance Committee’s Chair and Minority Leader, in a letter to the Senate’s Republican leaders, urged that the budget for FY2005 include funding adequate to cover the cost of its TANF reauthorization bill and added that “additional child care dollars will be needed so that states will not have to reduce the number of families receiving this key work support.” The faith community supports a provision by Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Chris Dodd (D-CT), that would increase child care funding by $6 billion over five years.

No schedule is set for a vote on TANF legislation in the Senate, but, considering the press of work on the budget and other election year issues given priority by Senate leaders, it appears now that there will be no TANF reauthorization vote until April at the earliest.

ACTION NEEDED:

Please call your Representative and Senators (202-224-3121) and urge them to support a “clean” extension of TANF, making no changes in the current program until Congress has completed the full reauthorization process.

For more information, contact Mary Cooper, NCC