{ "id": "R45966", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "number": "R45966", "active": true, "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "versions": [ { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 606352, "date": "2019-10-09", "retrieved": "2019-10-21T22:22:52.954417", "title": "The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Block Grant: Legislative Issues in the 116th Congress", "summary": "The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant was created by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA; P.L. 104-193). That law culminated four decades of debate about how to revise or replace the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. Most AFDC assistance was provided to families headed by single mothers who reported no work in the labor market, and the debates focused on whether such aid led to dependency on assistance by discouraging work and the formation and maintenance of two-parent families. \nTANF provides a fixed block grant to states ($16.5 billion total per year) that has not been adjusted at either the national or state levels since 1996. The TANF block grant is based on expenditures in the AFDC program in the early to mid-1990s, and thus the distribution of funds among the states has been \u201clocked in\u201d since that time. The purchasing power of the block grant has also declined over time due to inflation. Since 1997, it has lost 36% of its initial value.\nThe debates that led to the creation of TANF in 1996 focused on the terms and rules around public assistance to needy families with children. However, PRWORA created TANF as a broad-purpose block grant. States may use TANF funds \u201cin any manner that is reasonably calculated\u201d to achieve the block grant\u2019s statutory purposes, which involve TANF providing states flexibility to address the effects or the root causes of economic and social disadvantage of children. For pre-TANF programs, public assistance benefits provided to families comprised 70% of total spending. In FY2018, such public assistance comprised 21% of all TANF spending. States spend TANF funds on activities such as child care, education and employment services (not necessarily related to families receiving assistance), services for children \u201cat risk\u201d of foster care, and pre-kindergarten and early childhood education programs. There are few federal rules and little accountability for expenditures other than those made for assistance.\nBefore the 1996 law, many states experimented with programs to require work or participation in job preparation activities for AFDC recipients. PRWORA established \u201cwork participation requirements.\u201d Most of these requirements relate to a performance system that applies to the state as a whole, and are not requirements that apply to individuals. The system requires states to meet a minimum work participation rate (WPR). The complex rules of the WPR can be met through several different routes in addition to engaging unemployed recipients in job preparation activities: caseload reduction, state spending beyond what is required under TANF, and assistance to needy parents who are already working. In FY2018, all but one state met the participation standard. A total of 18 states met their minimum WPR through caseload reduction alone.\nSpending on assistance and the number of individuals receiving assistance have both declined substantially since the mid-1990s. The reduction in the assistance caseload was caused more by a decline in the percentage of those who were eligible receiving benefits than a decline in the number of people who met TANF\u2019s state-defined definitions of financial need. Assistance under TANF alleviates less poverty than it did under AFDC. While there have been expansions in other low-income assistance programs since PRWORA was enacted, such as the refundable tax credits from the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the child tax credit, those programs do not provide ongoing assistance on a monthly basis. \nSome of the TANF reauthorization bills introduced in the 115th and 116th Congresses attempt to focus a greater share of TANF dollars on activities related to assistance and work. Additionally, these bills would revise the system by which state programs are assessed on their performance in engaging assistance recipients in work or job preparation activities.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "https://www.crs.gov/Reports/R45966", "sha1": "20710349d8cebcf3341e67b01d5b4644cdb217be", "filename": "files/20191009_R45966_20710349d8cebcf3341e67b01d5b4644cdb217be.html", "images": { "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45966_files&id=/2.png": "files/20191009_R45966_images_a5b621c7a23f577aacc687d23a03a0c769674243.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45966_files&id=/3.png": "files/20191009_R45966_images_bd1c6e3daa5237b3143e74fd2eec2912926f732f.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45966_files&id=/0.png": "files/20191009_R45966_images_aaf42852fd7dd7c9a6382d9ab77b701121c87daf.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45966_files&id=/4.png": "files/20191009_R45966_images_964adb02278ef8c31e8d9e4ef46490b43bf8c995.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45966_files&id=/7.png": "files/20191009_R45966_images_a3d496ad5d5f571f4d91576786eaea55d532327c.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45966_files&id=/5.png": "files/20191009_R45966_images_8732003307b300273b35b02f9ff23b21e19128b6.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45966_files&id=/1.png": "files/20191009_R45966_images_c0edc8c6e51694855be2aa7ab9d121e66062d1fc.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45966_files&id=/6.png": "files/20191009_R45966_images_a77bff311a6aca9757179804de55fe4edffc5611.png", "/products/Getimages/?directory=R/html/R45966_files&id=/8.png": "files/20191009_R45966_images_d5f204739f271705cdf76e47c19b0caff64f5459.png" } }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "https://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R45966", "sha1": "a8a4a36dc5e6cfe37d21cfc7c919777a8973c547", "filename": "files/20191009_R45966_a8a4a36dc5e6cfe37d21cfc7c919777a8973c547.pdf", "images": {} } ], "topics": [] } ], "topics": [ "Domestic Social Policy" ] }