Welfare Reauthorization in the 109th Congress: An Overview (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
Jan. 23, 2007 |
| Report Number |
RL33418 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
Gene Falk, Melinda Gish, and Carmen Solomon-Fears, Domestic Social Policy Division |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
Summary:
Enactment of the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) of 2005 (P.L. 109-171, S. 1932) on February 8, 2006 concluded a four-year saga of legislative attempts to reauthorize Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and related programs. The original 1996 TANF law authorized five years of funding, through September 2002. Between October 1, 2002 and the DRA's passage, the program operated under a series of 12 "temporary extension" measures. Efforts to pass comprehensive free-standing welfare legislation during that period failed to reach fruition.
Instead, a scaled-back version of welfare reauthorization legislation was ultimately included in broader budget spending reconciliation legislation. The DRA of 2005 extends and maintains the basic TANF block grant at a funding level of $16.5 billion annually through FY2010; increases the share of TANF families required to participate in work activities; increases child care funding by $200 million per year over the FY2005 level of $2.7 billion, for FY2006-FY2010 (i.e., a total increase of $1 billion); provides federal cost-sharing for child support passed through to TANF and former TANF families, but prevents federal matching of child support incentive payments reinvested in the program; provides up to $100 million per year in demonstration grants for the promotion of "healthy marriages"; and establishes $50 million per year for "responsible fatherhood" initiatives.
The Administration originally proposed its welfare reauthorization plan in February 2002. The debate that ensued was dominated by controversy over child care funding levels and the Administration's proposed changes to TANF work participation standards. The reauthorization debate also reflected a renewed focus on noncustodial parents (usually fathers) and on family formation issues. The DRA includes responsible fatherhood initiatives and a scaled-back version of the President's initiative to promote healthy marriages.
The DRA ultimately included the same child care funding increase that was proposed in earlier House-passed welfare reauthorization measures in 2002 and 2003 ($1 billion in additional mandatory child care funding over five years). In the 108th Congress, legislation introduced in the Senate likewise proposed a $1 billion increase over five years (down from the $5.5 billion increase approved by the Senate Finance Committee in the 107th Congress); however, Senator Snowe led efforts pressing for a larger increase. The bill approved by the 109th Congress's Finance Committee (S. 667) reflected those efforts, with a proposed increase of $6 billion over five years. However, S. 667 was one of the free-standing welfare measures that was not taken up by the full Senate, and the child care funding increase was set at $1 billion in the final passage of the DRA.
With respect to the work requirement issue, while the DRA requires states to increase the share of their families participating in TANF work activities, it does not include the Administration's original proposal to set a 40-hour workweek standard or revise the activities that count toward it. This marks the final version of this report; it will not be updated.
