Action Needed on Senate TANF Bill

Tell Your Member of Congress to Support Responsible Welfare Reform

TANF Fact Sheets: Learn more about welfare reform and its relevance to people with disabilities. Senate TANF Bill*: The Senate Finance Committee's version of the Legislation.This is a PDF file.You will need the free Acrobat Reader to view it. House TANF Bill*: As passed by the House of Representatives. This is a PDF file.You will need the free Acrobat Reader to view it. Outcomes for TANF Recipients with Impairments*: A report by the General Accounting Office (July, 2002). This is a PDF file.You will need the free Acrobat Reader to view it. Get Involved... Support the Bazelon Center. Your tax-deductible donation helps the Bazelon Center keep you informed on important developments in mental health law and policy. Not a Subscriber? Sign up now to receive action alerts and updates from the Bazelon Center.

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.