Over the first five years of TANF's operation, more than half of the families on the rolls left the program, and some observers called it a great success. Many in-depth studies, however, have revealed that the majority of TANF leavers have not attained the kind of independence visualized for them by the program's creators. Rather, they have exchanged one kind of poverty for another, having left welfare to enter the world of the working poor.

With the start of recession in 2001 and the accompanying rise in unemployment, TANF rolls are again increasing in most states. Religious and secular social service organizations and food assistance programs report soaring requests for help, and food banks nationwide are running out of groceries to share with their needy neighbors. The U.S. Conference of Mayors reports that homelessness is on the rise and that working families are increasingly among those seeking shelter.

Nonetheless, Congress has steadfastly failed to take any steps to ease the plight of the poor, even the low-income workers for whom their rhetoric professed so much concern. What little legislation has been passed in this Congress has ignored the needs of working families, leaving untouched such issues as child care, minimum wage, and unemployment benefits.

TANF expired in 2002 and has continued to operate only through a series of short-term extensions. The House passed its version of TANF reauthorization last year, radically increasing the demand on recipients to work full-time, despite high unemployment, a nationwide loss of jobs, and a serious shortage of child care.

The Senate's deliberations on TANF broke down in March when Sen. Kennedy (D-MA) proposed an amendment to increase the minimum wage to help low-income workers rise out of poverty. The minimum wage has been stuck at $5.15 an hour since 1997. Kennedy's measure would have increased it by $1.50 over two years. There is strong support for the proposal in Congress, but House and Senate leaders, with backing from the White House, have refused to schedule votes over a period of several years. It is unclear when or whether there will be a Senate vote on TANF reauthorization this year. Funding expires again at the end of June, so some sort of action is essential to keep the program going, whether there is a full reauthorization or simply another short-term extension. The state Governors and legislators have repeatedly urged Congress to complete a full five-year reauthorization so that they can design their programs with certainty about funding, but their pleas have been ignored.

Congress has also failed to complete action to reauthorize Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation (TEUF), a program that provides an additional 13 weeks of unemployment benefits (beyond the basic 26 weeks) in areas with extremely high jobless rates. The TEUC program expired December 31, and over one million former workers have lost their benefits since then. With long-term unemployment on the increase, few jobs being created, and very little opportunity to retrain for new fields of work, the people whose unemployment benefits have expired have nowhere else to turn.

Despite some weak signs of economic recovery, the plight of low-income workers and the unemployed is increasingly desperate. Salaries for low-wage workers are stagnant, benefits are becoming less generous, and jobs continue to disappear as small businesses fail and corporations, seeking less costly workers, move jobs abroad. Advances in technology have made it possible to replace millions of workers with machines, which means that those jobs have disappeared permanently.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based research group that studies economic trends, the current "jobless recovery" has developed so slowly that many workers have experienced real wage losses and diminished standards of living, despite being employed throughout the recent recession. The growth in employment opportunity has been so feeble that it has not exerted the upward pressure on wages that is normal during periods of "economic recovery". At the same time, unusually low interest rates have led to unprecedented growth in the housing industry, with home sales and new construction at record levels. This trend, in turn, forces up rents, housing taxes, and utility rates, thus increasing living costs for all people, including low-income workers. Soaring energy, gasoline, and health care costs also greatly increase the burden on those with stagnant or decreasing wages.

Since January 2001, the unemployment rate has risen from 4% to 5.7%. Although it has actually declined slightly in the last few months, the official rate masks the depth of the problem. Joblessness is measured monthly though a random survey in which millions of individuals are asked whether they are employed full-time, part-time, or not at all and whether, if unemployed, they actively sought work in the last four weeks. The figures only include as unemployed those who are still engaged in a job hunt. People who have grown discouraged and stopped looking for work — even if only briefly — are not counted as unemployed, nor are those who stop seeking work because of illness or family responsibilities. As jobs disappear from the American economy or are exported abroad, more and more people are likely to enter the "discouraged worker" category and be dropped from the statistics.

In this election year, Congress is more focused on perpetuating its own longevity than it is on the plight of low-income working families. As summer approaches and the need to be out campaigning increases, Congress will spend more time in recess than in session, with the result that the needs of working poor households will most likely stay at the bottom of the congressional priorities list.

Minimum wage (from the Presbyterian Social Witness Policy Compilation)

ACSWP Introduction

The prevalence of poverty in the United States has captured the abiding concern of the General Assemblies. The Assemblies have emphasized the obligation of the church to minister to people of all economic classes (PCUSA, 1956, p. 232), and to repudiate ". . . all assumptions and attitudes that confuse 'respectability' with righteousness . . ." (UPCUSA, 1965, p. 391). The Assemblies have also been concerned about this alleviation of poverty what the 1965 PCUS Assembly called ". . . a powerful accessory to our social ills . . ." (PCUS, 1965, p. 162). This concern has led Assemblies to propose a guaranteed minimum income (UPCUSA, 1968, p. 386; PCUS, 1971, p. 146), to urge special efforts to deal with unemployment, including guaranteeing employment (UPCUSA, 1968, p. 645; PCUS, 1976, p. 87; PCUS, 1977, p. 183), to support the designation of high unemployment areas as disaster areas, and to support programs targeted toward the needs of women, infants and children, and the hungry (UPCUSA, 1976, p. 503; PCUS, 1977, p. 184). The Assemblies have also favored welfare reform while opposing workfare proposals that seek to punish the poor (PCUS, 1977, p. 183; PC(USA), 1984, p. 504; PC(USA), 1987, p. 582). They have supported efforts of church and private groups to address the problems of the suddenly unemployed; and opposed proposals to balance governmental budgets and obtain prosperity at the expense of the nation's poor (UPCUSA, 1981, p. 306; PC(USA), 1985, p. 575). Most recently, the 1988 Assembly urged that the minimum wage be restored to an above poverty level (PC(USA), 1988, p. 363); and that not even in death are the issues of poverty and disenfranchisement laid to rest. (PC(USA), 1991, p. 1,030).

Unemployment Protections

1980 General Assembly statement (PCUS, p. 221):

...Therefore, be it resolved that the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States commits itself and calls on members of the Church to intensify efforts in urging the members of Congress to do everything in their power to maintain at least the existing level of support of the domestic programs in nutrition, housing, education, welfare, social security, and employment...