The TANF Reauthorization Debate: Key Welfare Reform Issues and Concerns

Abstract

In the United States today, the term generally refers to the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), which replaced the federal cash public assistance program Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) block grant. This legislation changed the structure of income support for poor families in the United States in a number of very significant ways, including the elimination of the individual entitlement to cash public assistance, the institution of a work-based safety-net for poor families with children (with, for example, the imposition of mandatory requirements and time limits on the receipt of cash public assistance), and the inclusion of family formation issues (such as the reduction of non-marital births and the promotion of marriage) among the welfare system's primary goals. The TANF program must receive Congressional reauthorization by September 30, 2002, and welfare researchers and advocates have focused a great deal of attention on identifying key TANF reauthorization issues and policy goals. Much of this discussion has focused on issues closely related to the core elements of the TANF program, such as the primary purpose of TANF, the size of the TANF block grant, the structure and implementation of time limits and sanctions, and the effectiveness of work first welfare-to-work strategies. In the context of the current economic downturn, the impacts of TANF policies in a weak economy and the ability of the TANF program to cope with increased economic need have also become critically important concerns. This paper provides a brief overview of some key TANF reauthorization issues and concerns that Congress is likely to face as it considers the next phase of welfare reform (see table 1).