Action Needed on Senate TANF Bill
Tell Your Member of Congress to Support Responsible
Welfare Reform
July 24, 2002 – The Senate Finance Committee recently
approved a bill to reauthorize the federal welfare program, the
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant, clearing
the way for consideration of the legislation on the Senate floor in
the coming weeks. Reauthorization of the program is a key issue for
people with disabilities and grassroots action is needed to promote
responsible welfare reform that recognizes the special barriers
faced by people with physical and mental impairments.
TANF imposes work requirements on poor families and sets a
five-year lifetime limit on eligibility for welfare benefits. The
current law, first enacted in 1996, is set to expire on September
30, 2002.
Recipients with disabilities are already struggling under the
work requirements imposed by welfare reform. TANF recipients with
impairments were half as likely to leave the welfare rolls as those
without impairments and when they did they were less likely to be
employed, according to a recent General Accounting Office (GAO)
study. In fact, thirty-six percent of recipients with impairments
had no income source when they left the rolls.
A substantial number of the program's beneficiaries are affected
by a mental or physical impairment. Adults who receive TANF benefits
were three times more likely to have at least one physical or mental
health impairment than adults not receiving benefits under the
program, according to a study released last year by the GAO.
The House of Representatives passed its version of the TANF
reauthorization legislation earlier this year, imposing draconian
work requirements that would almost certainly mean that some
individuals with disabilities will lose access to essential TANF
benefits. The Senate bill is significantly better, but still needs
improvement.
Senate Bill Improves TANF
The Senate's "Work, Opportunity, and Responsibility for Kids Act
of 2002" (H.R. 4737) makes several improvements over the House bill
and to the TANF program as a whole. The Senate bill would:
- Require screening and assessment of TANF recipients for
employment barriers, including mental illness. The Department of
Health and Human Services is also required to develop model
screening and assessment tools to assist states in identifying
TANF recipients with such barriers.
- Allow states to exempt up to 10% of their TANF caseloads from
the program's work requirements, including families who are caring
for a child or adult family member with a physical or mental
disability or chronic illness. Caring for a family member can make
it difficult to secure and maintain employment. Studies have found
that parents who have a child with a disability are less likely to
work. An estimated 21-36% of welfare families have a child with a
disability as compared to 12.2% of the general population.
- Continue the "transitional" Medicaid benefit under TANF.
States may provide continuous Medicaid eligibility to TANF
recipients for 12 months after they have left the program,
providing an important safety net for individuals who face
employment difficulties. Families with incomes below 185% of the
federal poverty level may receive another year of benefits. States
may also provide transitional Medicaid benefits to families who
were not TANF recipients for the last three to six months prior to
losing their Medicaid.
- Require a review of TANF recipients' Individual Responsibility
Plan (IRP) before imposing a sanction. This requirement is a first
step towards increasing accountability and encouraging appropriate
services aimed at empowering TANF recipients to secure and
maintain employment. TANF recipients with disabilities have been
disproportionately sanctioned, losing their benefits mainly
because the barrier to work posed by their disability or a family
member's disability has not been adequately addressed.
- Allow activities that promote self-sufficiency to count toward
the program's work requirement. Rehabilitation activities,
including participation in mental health and substance abuse
treatment can be considered full time work activity for up to
three months (out of a 24 month period) and an additional three
months if combined with work or job readiness activities.
- The Senate bill maintains the current 30 hours work week
requirement. It also increases funds available for childcare funds
to $5.5 billion over five years. However, this amount is still
wholly inadequate to meet the needs of TANF recipients whose
children are eligible for childcare, many of whom are on waiting
lists.
House Bill is Harmful to People with Disabilities
The House passed its version of TANF reauthorization in May. H.R.
4737, "The Personal Responsibility, Work and Family Promotion Act of
2002," would:
Provide transitional Medicaid coverage, but this provision would
expire at the end of 2003, after which this important benefit would
be unavailable to TANF families.
- Increase work requirements to 40 hours a week. Additionally,
the first 24 hours of the 40 hours must be spent in a narrow set
of work activities.
- Provide full family sanctions for noncompliance of work
requirements by any family member.
- Increase childcare funds to $1 billion over five years -- a
figure unlikely to meet the childcare needs of TANF beneficiaries.
- Restrict states' flexibility by allowing only three months of
substance abuse treatment, job training or "rehabilitation"
services to count as full time work.
- Allow states to receive "super-waivers" that would permit them
to use federal programs, including programs beyond the TANF
program, in a way that Congress did not intend or authorize. These
"super-waivers" would permit a state to ignore congressional
funding decisions or standards and requirements for federal
programs. Such broad state authority poses a serious threat to
vital federal programs, including those that serve poor families
and individuals with mental health needs. Program requirements
that provide safeguards to this population would be at risk of
being eliminated without public input and substantial program
resources could simply be transferred elsewhere. Programs at risk
include the Child Care and Development Block Grant, TANF, the
Social Services Block Grant, food stamp program, public housing
and homeless assistance.
Room for Improvement
Despite increased unemployment and a worsening economy, both
bills also increase the current work participation rate and fail to
increase funding for TANF, which remains at $16.5 billion annually.
The bills also continue to allow states to exempt only 20% of their
caseloads from time limits for hardship reasons, maintaining a
burden that is borne heavily by TANF recipients with disabilities
who face serious barriers to securing meaningful employment and may
need cash assistance long past 60 months.
Both the House and Senate bills maintain the lifetime prohibition
on offering TANF cash assistance or food stamp benefits to persons
convicted of a state or federal felony offense involving the use or
sale of drugs, denying those individuals the supports needed to live
independently in the community.
Action Needed
The Senate bill is significantly better than the House
version because it recognizes and addresses the barriers to work
resulting from mental illness in both adults and the children they
care for. However, it could be improved.
The Senate bill may be debated soon. Contact your Senators and
urge them to support the Senate Finance Committee bill with the
following improving amendments:
- Allow states the option to extend the time allowed for
"rehabilitation" activities, including mental health treatment.
- Include time limit exemptions for families who are caring for
a child or adult family member with a disability.
- Repeal the lifetime drug felony ban.
Urge your Senators to reject any weakening amendments to:
- Increase work hours beyond the current 30 hours per week.
- Impose full family sanctions (ending cash assistance) to those
who do not comply with the work requirements. Services and
supports should be furnished to assist the individual in moving
towards work.
- Add language similar to that in the House bill allowing for
state "super-waivers" of federal authority that would negate
important federal programs serving low-income families and those
with disabilities.
What You Can Do
Call: Contact your Senators by calling the Capitol
Switchboard at 202-224-3121.
Write a letter to:
The Honorable (first and last
name)
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Email: To contact your Member of Congress by email, please
visit http://www.congress.org/. Be clear and concise and
remember to include your full name, mailing address and zip code.
Most congressional offices will not respond to email from people
outside of their districts, so please be sure to begin by
introducing yourself as a constituent.
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