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What is TANF reauthorization?
The federal law that dramatically changed Welfare in 1996 is currently up for review. Congress is required to examine the successes and failures of
the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PWRORA)
and determine: 1) What the level of funding should be for Welfare in the
future and 2) if the rules and regulations should be changed.
PWRORA ended the 60-year Federal entitlement program, Aid to Families
with Dependent Children (AFDC) and replaced it with the Temporary Assistance
to Needy Families (TANF) program. Unlike AFDC, TANF funds are block granted
to each state. State governments then have the flexibility to design their
own TANF program within certain Federal guidelines. The ideology behind
the ’96 law was that AFDC created a dependence on government assistance.
The way to break that “dependence,” Republican and moderate
Democrat lawmakers reasoned, was to impose strict work requirements, a
punitive sanction system and arbitrary time limits on very poor families
with children.
Proponents of PWRORA cite the 50% decline in Welfare caseloads to claim
Welfare reform a huge success. However, Welfare Rights groups and Welfare
advocates from around the country know that for every successful Welfare-to-work
story, there is an equally unsuccessful story. A key problem with PWRORA
is that it does not require that states keep track of the people who are
leaving their welfare roles so that we may know how they are doing months
and years down the road. We know from experience that many single Moms
who have left Welfare have left because they misunderstood the new requirements
and thought they had no choice but to take the first low-wage job offered
them. A very unfortunate outcome of Welfare reform has been the emphasis
on any type of work rather than on career planning and educational attainment
for low-income parents.
TANF reauthorization will allow us to revisit the critical issues of Welfare
reform. Conservative, proponents of the PRWORA will likely argue for increasing
work requirements and decreasing the funding for TANF. There’s a
strong possibility that they will argue that the revised law contain policies
that “promote marriage.” (And ostensibly, penalize single parenthood).
The Welfare Justice Project of Just Harvest is working with several national
coalitions of Welfare Rights Consumers and Advocates to impact the Reauthorization
with a vision for TANF reauthorization that will better serve the needs
of Welfare consumers. Key among the points that we endorse are: The abolishment
of arbitrary time limits on the receipt of benefits; allowing education
(including college) to count as a work activity; and increasing the income
eligibility so that more poor families can access TANF. Welfare
Policies should work to reduce poverty, not just caseloads!
The Welfare Justice Project is participating in several national reauthorization
campaigns. Contact Rochelle at Just Harvest for the most up-to-date
information.
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