Senate TANF Mark-up Is A Step In The Right Direction
7/15/02 • Vol. 51, No. 13

The Senate Finance Committee has approved legislation expanding educational opportunities and maintaining the 30-hour workweek for recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), commonly referred to as the welfare reform legislation.
    The committee's approval, part of the TANF reauthorization process, came just before the Independence Day recess. The higher education community has been working to strengthen the education component in the TANF program.
    The Senate legislation calls for:

• Maintaining the 30 hours/week work requirement for recipients while adding the new 24 core work hours provision proposed by the House;
• Expanding the definition of vocational education to include community college programs "which result in a credential related to employment or a job skill";
• Doubling the 12-month participation limit to 24 months;
• Removing teens from the participation cap of 30 percent;
• Permitting states to extend benefits to immigrants and;
• Permitting states to allow up to 10 percent of the caseload to participate in postsecondary (2-year, 4-year, public, private) education while receiving TANF assistance without the 24-month cap applying.

    The Senate TANF legislation is significantly different than the version already passed by the House of Representatives, H.R. 4737, which closely paralleled the Bush administration's proposal. The House bill imposes even stricter work requirements on welfare recipients, making it more difficult to participate in postsecondary and vocational education. TANF will expire in the fall unless Congress passes reauthorization legislation.
    American Council on Education President David Ward has sent a number of letters to members of Congress on behalf of the higher education community and has urged campus leaders to contact their respective senators and voice support for provisions that expand educational opportunity for TANF recipients. Electronic versions of the most-recent letters are available on the ACE web site at http://www.acenet.edu/washington/letters/.
    The 1996 welfare reform reauthorization act was praised for reducing state welfare roles, but has also been criticized for doing little to either help previous TANF recipients rise above poverty, or foster economic independence. The current TANF statutes include several features that significantly limit the educational opportunities of welfare recipients.

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Last Modified: July 15, 2002