Current Federal Policies | Analysis of Policy Proposals | Workforce Research Analysis of Policy Proposals Senate Finance Committee Approves TANF Reauthorization Legislation, "Work, Opportunity, and Responsibility for Kids (WORK) Act of 2002" On June 26th, the Senate Finance Committee marked up its version of legislation to reauthorize the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. The "Work, Opportunity, and Responsibility for Kids (WORK) Act of 2002" is largely based on principles outlined last month by a "tri-partisan" group of Finance Committee members (Breaux (D-LA), Lincoln (D-AR), Rockefeller (D-WV), Snowe (R-ME), Hatch (R-UT), and Jeffords (I-VT)). In terms of work, education and training, the committee mark: Universal Engagement: Requires states to screen and assess the skills, prior work experience, work readiness, and barriers to employment of recipients, and requires an individual responsibility plan for each recipient detailing required work activities and needed work supports. States will be provided with $120 million over four years for technical assistance including: caseworker training, coordination of support programs, and outreach. Work Participation Rates: Increases the work participation rate by 5 percentage points yearly to 70 percent in FY 2007. Employment Credit: Replaces the current TANF caseload reduction credit with an employment credit that rewards states for moving those leaving TANF for employment, gives extra credit for individuals leaving the rolls for employment at wages at least 33 percent of the average wage in the state, and partial credit for those working part-time. The mark caps the total amount of credit a state can receive for employed leavers, those leaving for higher-paying jobs, and for child care and transportation assistance provisions (together) as follows: 35 percent in FY 2004, 30 percent in 2005, 25 percent in FY 2006, and 20 percent in FY 2007. If states meet proposed triggers for the TANF contingency fund (including specific increases in unemployment, food stamp caseloads, and TANF caseloads), they will not be subject to these caps. Work Hours: Maintains the current number of hours required for recipients to work at 30, but increases the number of hours recipients must be engaged in "priority activities" to 24 from 20. (Activities countable under current law include: unsubsidized employment; subsidized private or public employment; work experience; on-the-job training; job search (currently limited to six weeks); community service; vocational educational training (currently limited to 12 months); provision of care for a child of a community service participant; job skills training related to work; education related to work (for those who have dropped out of high school); and secondary school attendance.) The mark retains the provision that allows mothers with children under age six to be deemed as meeting the full work requirement at 20 hours. Education and Training: - Expands the current list of approved priority activities to include 24 months of vocational education (up from the current 12), including community college programs resulting in a credential related to employment or a job skill; and allows three months (full-time) of every 24 months for adult basic education and programs to address limited English proficiency, with an additional three months allowed when combined with work or job-readiness activities (this also applies to other "rehabilitative" services such as substance abuse and mental health treatment). - Removes teen parents engaged in secondary education from counting towards the 30 percent cap on the number of recipients who can be engaged in vocational education and training activities and count towards a state's work participation rate. - Increases to eight weeks (up from six) the time period for which full-time job search counts as an allowable activity. - If a recipient participates in other priority activities for 24 hours per week, the newly expanded activities described above may count for the final six hours of activities per week without time limits on the activity. An amendment offered by Senator Snowe, and co-sponsored by Senators Bingaman (D-NM), Jeffords, and Rockefeller, allows states to create a "Parents as Scholars" program which would count post-secondary education as an allowable work activity, and allow recipients to receive cash assistance and other work supports while enrolled in post-secondary education; states may not use federal TANF dollars for tuition and may only allow 10 percent of their caseload to be enrolled. Reporting Requirements: Requires the Department of Health and Human Services to report data annually for each state on welfare-to-work performance, based on measures of job entry, job retention rates, quarterly earnings, and earnings gains. Business Link Partnership Grants: Repeals the current high performance bonus, replacing it with a $200 million annual competitive grant program called the Business Link Partnership for Employers and Nonprofit Organizations. Grants are to be awarded jointly by the Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services to nonprofit groups, local workforce investment boards, localities, or tribes to provide for: creation or expansion of programs designed to partner with employers to improve wages of low-income persons, through improving job skills and providing supports for low-income workers and those with disabilities; and creation or expansion of transitional jobs programs for low-income individuals unable to secure work through job search or other employment-related services because of limited skills, experience, or other work barriers. Integration with WIA: Requires TANF programs to be partners in the One-Stop system of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), unless a state chooses to opt out of the requirement. Waivers: Permits states with waivers set to expire after on or after October 1, 2002 to continue them through the end of FY2007, provided that they comply with the "universal engagement" requirement. Increasing the 12-month limit on training, eliminating the 30 percent cap on the percentage of a state's recipients that can be engaged in training activities, counting post secondary education as an allowable work activity, encouraging investments in skills-building activities, and measuring states' performance in job entry rates, retention rates and earnings gains are core elements of the Workforce Alliance's TANF reauthorization platform. For more information on the bill as a whole, please visit http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/legislation.htm and http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50879-2002Jun26.html.