Urgent Action Alert: Senate Action on TANF Reauthorization
June 25, 2002
On Wednesday, June 26, the Senate Finance Committee will begin marking-up the Work, Opportunity, and Responsibility for Kids (WORK) Act of 2002, a bill to reauthorize the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program. The bill reflects policies we have called for in several ways, including:
- Maintains both the current 30-hour work activity requirement and the lower standard – 20 hours -- for mothers with children under six.
- Gives states more flexibility to count educational activities as work – states can count vocational education, including community college, as work for 24 months (current law is 12 months).
- Gives states the option to use TANF funds to assist legal immigrants who have arrived since 1996. Note that the Bishops' Conference has called for FULL restoration of benefits eligibility for legal immigrants.
- Extends and improves the Transitional Medical Assistance program for five years.
- Increases mandatory child care funding by $5.5 billion over five years.
- Provides for grants for programs to support healthy marriages
If your Senator is on the Committee, call and urge him or her to support these aspects of the Chairman's mark.
Also, we anticipate that the following key amendments may be offered:
- Ask Senators to SUPPORT amendments to:
- End state policies that make it harder for two-parent families to qualify for and receive TANF assistance (to be offered by Senator Rockefeller)
- Give states flexibility in applying work requirements to and providing assistance to families with sick or disabled children (could be offered by Senators Conrad or Kerry)
- Restore funding for the Social Services Block Grant (could be offered by Senators Rockefeller or Graham).
- Ask Senators to OPPOSE amendments to:
- Force states to use "full-family" sanctions – cut benefits to entire families, including children -- when recipients fail to comply with TANF rules (could be offered b Senator Gramm).
Contact your Senators through the Capitol Switchboard, 202-224-3121
Senate Finance Committee Members: Chairman Max Baucus (MT), John D. Rockefeller IV (WV), Tom Daschle (SD), John Breaux (LA), Kent Conrad (ND), Bob Graham (FL), Jeff Bingaman (NM), John F. Kerry (MA), Robert G. Torricelli (NJ), Blanche L. Lincoln (AR), James M. Jeffords (VT), Ranking Minority Member Charles E. Grassley (IA), Orrin G. Hatch (UT), Frank H. Murkowski (AK), Don Nickles (OK), Phil Gramm (TX), Trent Lott (MS), Fred Thompson (TN), Olympia J. Snowe (ME), Jon Kyl (AZ), Craig Thomas (WY)
For more information on the USCCB's position on TANF reauthorization, see our website (www.usccb.org/sdwp) or contact Kathy Curran at kcurran@usccb.org or 202-541-3188