TANF Changes in the Budget Reconciliation Bill will negatively affect poor families with children.
In late December, the U.S. Senate approved—with a few minor changes— the House-passed budget reconciliation bill conference report (S. 1932). This bill includes language reauthorizing the TANF program for five years and making certain other changes to TANF.
A copy of the bill’s provisions related to TANF (and to the child care and development fund and the child support enforcement program) is available at: http://inclusionist.org/files/TANF%20Provisions.pdf. There is also a side-by-side analysis comparing the policy provisions included in reconciliation to current law as an appendix to this paper.
Additional resources:
CLASP Center for Law and Social Policy:
New TANF Requirements Could Result in New Large Costs and Risk of Federal Penalties for California
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities / Economic Policy Institute:
Income Inequality has Increased in California Over the Past Two Decades
Some TANF funding changes made by the reconciliation bill are:
(Click Here for the complete document.)
· The basic TANF block grant would be extended (at current funding levels) until FY2010.
· Mandatory child care funding would be increased by $1 billion over five years. (The previous Senate TANF bill provided $6 billion over five years for child care funding—this funding was partially offset by the cuts to the EITC noted above—while the previous House bill provided only $500 million over five years).
· TANF supplemental grants would be extended, but for only three years.
· Existing TANF bonuses—a High Performance Bonus based on states’ progress toward meeting TANF goals ($200 million per year) and a bonus for reducing out-of-wedlock pregnancies ($100 million per year)—would be eliminated.
