The upcoming reauthorization of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Program provides Congress with an invaluable opportunity to better support working families in the United States. Although welfare caseloads have declined markedly since the implementation of TANF, millions of Americans remain in poverty. By making some key changes to the program, Congress can transform TANF into a more effective tool for supporting work and fostering true economic security among low-income families.

Make Poverty Reduction the Primary Goal of TANF

• Address Persistent Poverty: Since 1996, caseloads have declined significantly and large numbers of single parents have entered the workforce. Unfortunately, caseloads have fallen much more rapidly than the poverty rate. In fact, evidence suggests that very low-income single-parent families are poorer today than their counterparts five years ago, and that nearly half of all families that have left the welfare rolls live in poverty.
  
• Reward States That Promote Family Well-Being: TANF reauthorization should emphasize the goal of poverty reduction. To that end, poverty reduction must be made an explicit goal of the program, and federal bonus grants should reward states that implement policies effective in alleviating poverty and improving family and child well-being.
  

Provide Adequate TANF Funding

• Increase the Block Grant: TANF reauthorization must include increased funding so that states can continue to provide an array of needed support services to low-income families. Although the TANF block grant is being used for a variety of important initiatives, it has fallen in real value by 13.5 percent since 1997. If the block grant is not increased—at least to adjust for inflation—states will face a serious funding shortfall and important programs now helping working families will be cut.
  
• Revamp the Contingency Fund: Federal reauthorization legislation must also provide states with access to additional funding to deal with the current and future recessions. The Contingency Fund in the current welfare law is deeply flawed and must be revamped to ensure that states have access to federal funding to offset a significant portion of the rising costs associated with increasing need and caseloads.
  

Modify Time Limits and Work Requirements

• Make Work Pay: Families that are working and receiving modest cash assistance grants to supplement low earnings should not be subject to the federal time limit on assistance. Running the time limit clock while a parent is working and receiving such supplements means both that a family could lose assistance when it has exhausted its time-limited benefits and not be able to receive additional assistance if the parent loses her job. TANF should send a strong message to recipients that “work pays” – running the clock while a family is working undermines this message.
  
• Grant Extensions When Significant Barriers to Employment are Present: A number of families remaining on the rolls face severe barriers to employment such as domestic violence, mental illness or substance abuse. Many of these families are approaching their lifetime TANF eligibility limit, while individuals who left the program may be forced back into it by the faltering economy. Temporary exemptions from time limits and work requirements must be granted to families confronting severe employment barriers - including living in an area of high unemployment. Recipients who are caring for sick children or children or relatives with disabilities should be eligible for these exemptions. In addition, suspending the clock for those who are in a treatment program for substance abuse, or waiting to enter into a program, allows time to complete treatment and successfully find training or work opportunities, without losing benefits. Participation in such a program should count as work activity.
  

Enhance Education, Training and Job Opportunities

• Repeal Federal Caps on Education and Training: To meet the goal of poverty reduction, TANF must promote education and training targeted at developing real, applicable job skills. Quality education and training programs can substantially enhance an individual’s chances of securing employment that pays a family-supporting wage and offers room for advancement. Thus, reauthorization legislation must repeal the current 30 percent cap on states’ education and training participation rates as well as the 12-month limit on an individual's pursuit of vocational education. Higher education and training should qualify as a recipient’s work activity.
  
• Create Public Jobs: Individuals with few job skills and other barriers to employment must have options available to them when they cannot secure work, and families should not be penalized when the economy fails to provide job opportunities. A public jobs program should be established to serve those with limited employment experience and to guarantee work and training opportunities to communities during economic hard times. Existing public jobs programs have improved long-term income and employment prospects for their participants.

Ensure Access to Benefits to Immigrants and Other Families in Need

• Link Recipients to Services and Benefits: Although TANF has expanded the number of support services available to individuals transitioning from welfare to work, too many families are not receiving the assistance they need. To enhance support for working families, states must do a better job of publicizing available benefits, screening clients for barriers to employment, and linking recipients to the services for which they are eligible. Reauthorization must provide resources for outreach and incentives for states to simplify application processes, provide welfare services during evening and weekend hours, utilize multi-lingual materials where necessary, and streamline referral services.
  
• Restore Benefits to Legal Immigrants: Our economy relies heavily on the labor and taxes of immigrants, who comprise a growing share of the low-wage workforce. Between 6 and 9 million immigrants are taxpayers that contribute to the cost of providing benefits and services for low-income families. They should not be excluded from programs that could help them attain skills needed to advance in the labor market and provide a safety net when temporary hardship interrupts their employment. TANF reauthorization legislation should restore fully Food Stamp, SSI, Medicaid, and TANF benefits for legal immigrants.

Expand Assistance to Two-Parent Families

• End Discrimination Against Two-Parent Families: A common complaint about the former AFDC program was that it discouraged the formation of two-parent families. With few exceptions, states policies under TANF have preserved this inequity. Federal law should not create disincentives for states to provide assistance to two-parent families - which are counter to the goal of supporting and encouraging two-parent families. Thus, the separate two-parent family work participation rate should be eliminated and states should not be permitted to discriminate against two-parent families when determining eligibility for TANF-related programs.
  
• Maintain Full Support for Single-Parent Families: States should not be mandated to shift TANF block grant monies to specific family formation projects since they already have the flexibility to implement these types of programs. Any new initiatives to promote marriage must not deplete funds now available to single-parent families.

Improve Program Accountability

• Ensure Proper Use of Taxpayer Funds: Some private corporations operating local TANF programs have misused taxpayer dollars that are intended to serve the poor. Administrators of TANF programs must be held accountable for the proper management of resources and delivery of services to families in need. Contracts to administer TANF programs should not simply reward caseload reduction, but must contain performance goals designed to promote family well-being. The contracting process itself must be transparent, and those operating TANF programs must face penalties for non-compliance or misuse of welfare funds, and uphold all civil rights laws.
  
• Improve Data Collection: Program accountability can also be improved through the routine collection and analysis of data on TANF families. The National Academy of Sciences and others have noted that current data are insufficient for measuring the effects of TANF on families. To obtain a clear assessment of the program’s effects, states must be required to provide policymakers and the public with accurate information about how TANF funds are being used and how welfare leavers are faring. Data should be broken down by race and ethnicity to ensure that services and benefits are being distributed equitably.

Provide Housing Support

• Federal reauthorization legislation must address the critical housing needs of vulnerable families. Therefore, housing subsidies must be defined as work supports, instead of “assistance,” so they are not restricted by time limits or other TANF requirements. HHS should be granted additional funds to begin a collaborative initiative with HUD to explore new models of housing with services for families with multiple barriers to work. In addition, allowing states to use carryover TANF funds for work supports would increase states’ capacity to address housing and other work support needs.

Narrow the Drug Felony Ban to Exclude Parents in Treatment or Awaiting Treatment

• The 1996 Federal welfare law permitted states to permanently ban parents with drug felony convictions from receiving TANF or food stamps. Most parents convicted of state and federal drug felonies are addicts in desperate need of treatment that is unavailable to them. The drug felony ban represents a dangerous exclusion of support services for these parents. Eight states have completely opted out of the federal drug felony ban, and others have chosen to narrow the ban to exempt parents who are on waiting lists to enter treatment, in treatment, or have successfully completed treatment programs.