Strengthen TANF Now

Congress will take action soon on reauthorization of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), the nation's primary program providing cash assistance to low-income families. TANF was created by Congress in 1996 and expires September 30, 2002.

There are several proposals now under consideration that would strengthen the TANF program to better enable parents to become independent of welfare and support their families through employment. Other proposals, however, would diminish the opportunity available to low-income families, and could, in some cases, place their children at risk.

The relevant House Committees are marking up a bill to go to the House floor before the Memorial Day recess, beginning May 25. The Senate Finance Committee will mark up its bill May 22 and expects to complete floor action prior to the July 4 recess.

ACT NOW

Call or fax your Representatives and Senators and urge them to support legislation to reauthorize TANF that would:

• Make poverty reduction a goal of the legislation;
• Fund TANF at the current level but index future spending to inflation;
• Provide education and training, eliminate barriers to employment, and reject proposals to increase the work requirement.
• Serve all who need help, including legal immigrants; and
• Give states flexibility to exempt families with special needs from time limits.

BACKGROUND

The legislation creating TANF was passed by Congress in 1996 to replace the old Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program as the nation's primary source of cash assistance to low-income households with children. Unlike AFDC, which was an entitlement program open to anyone who qualified on the basis of poverty, TANF is a block grant to the states. Families are eligible for a maximum of two years at one time, with a lifetime limit of 60 months of eligibility.

Poverty Reduction: The TANF legislation identifies as its goals: providing assistance to needy families; ending the dependence of needy parents on government benefits by promoting job preparation, work and marriage; preventing and reducing out-of-wedlock pregnancies; and encouraging the formation of two-parent families.

President Bush's proposal for reauthorization would add "increased child well-being" as a goal. The religious community believes that another goal should be "poverty reduction." An amendment to add that goal was defeated during the House mark-up.

It is not, in fact, clear how much the legislation has actually reduced poverty since 1996. While the rate of poverty has declined, the economy has been very strong during most of the period and jobs have been plentiful. Nonetheless, the welfare rolls have declined at a far greater rate than poverty has, meaning that people are leaving TANF but not leaving poverty.

TANF Funding: The program is funded at $16.5 billion per year, a figure based on the cost of welfare benefits in 1994. President Bush has proposed the same funding level for the next five years. The religious community calls for maintaining the current funding but indexing it to inflation, so that the purchasing power of benefits will keep up with the cost of living.

Education and Training, Work Requirements, and Elimination of Barriers to Employment: At least 50% of all adult TANF recipients are required to be engaged in work or work-related activities outside the home for 30 hours a week, even though the majority have preschool children. President Bush would increase that to require 70% of the caseload to work 40 hours a week. Most Senate proposals retain the current hourly requirement at 30 but accept the higher participation rate. The religious community contends that these increased work requirements place an unreasonable burden on the states, which are having difficulty complying with current law. The President would provide no additional funds to meet these goals or help with family needs.

Priority should be given to eliminating barriers to employment. This includes providing training and education to help unskilled workers get and hold jobs, and providin g all low-wage workers with critical support services such as health care, quality child care, tax credits, transportation and housing assistance. All job placements made through TANF should lead to family-sustaining wages and comply with workplace protection laws.

President Bush's proposal would increase the work requirement while providing no new resources for the child care parents will need to work the extra hours. About one-quarter of eligible poor children now receive government-subsidized child care. The President would also eliminate vocational education and job search from the list of acceptable work activities. The religious community supports proposals to increase child care funding significantly and to expand the list of acceptable activities to help TANF recipients become more employable, including vocational education and post-secondary education.

Serve All Who Need Help: When Congress enacted TANF 1996, it ended welfare eligibility, food stamp benefits, and health care for most legal immigrants, even though a great many of them had jobs and paid taxes. Children and handicapped people have regained some benefits, but legal immigrants still cannot get TANF until they have been in the U.S. for five years. Food stamps and Supplemental Security Income for the aged, blind, and disabled are unavailable until they are in the U.S. for ten years or become citizens.

The religious community supports President Bush's proposal to cut the waiting period for food stamps to five years. One plan before the Senate would reinstate Medicaid eligibility for legal immigrants. The religious community holds that people in need should receive help without extended waiting periods.

Flexibility on Time Limits: States should have flexibility to exempt from time limits those who comply with program requirements but still need help to meet family needs. This includes people in education and training programs that require extra time for completion. States should also have increased flexibility to exempt part of their caseloads from time limits on the basis of special needs, such as multiple barriers to work, including care giving responsibilities.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

In 1997 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) reminded us of these words from section 9.32 of our Book of Order. "The church proclaims the love and justice of God, and effectively ministers to Jesus Christ (Matt. 25:40) as it welcomes and cares for poor, hungry, and homeless persons and families." The Assembly continued, stating, "The basic necessities of life are essential human rights. Only government assistance programs with federally-set minimal national benefit levels can provide benefits adequate to meet basic needs and to sustain every person's participation, with dignity, in society…Government assistance programs should be available to all residents, regardless of residency status." The General Assembly statement reminds us, "The Reformed Tradition has a positive view of the role of government in society and of the church's responsibility for calling on government to extend compassion and justice to all people with a special preference for those caught in the web of poverty" (Minutes, pp. 554-555).