2001CRH8402B H.R. 3113, TANF REAUTHORIZATION ACT
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[Congressional Record: November 27, 2001 (House)]
[Page H8402-H8403]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:cr27no01-82]
H.R. 3113, TANF REAUTHORIZATION ACT
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentlewoman from Hawaii (Mrs. Mink) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mrs. MINK of Hawaii. Mr. Speaker, I rise to advise this House that I
have introduced a bill, H.R. 3113, which seeks to amend and reauthorize
the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (TANF). H.R. 3113
currently has 49 sponsors. I hope that more Members will join in
support of major changes to the TANF law that Congress enacted in 1996.
The TANF block grants must be reauthorized next year. It is not too
early to begin the review and discussion of necessary changes.
TANF replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program,
which had distributed welfare benefits since the 1930s. Benefits under
the AFDC program were provided as an entitlement and although benefit
levels varied from state to state, the overall system was regulated by
the federal government. TANF repealed the entitlement and made much of
the eligibility and program structure subject to state law.
TANF also imposed a cumulative lifetime time limit of 5 years on the
receipt of benefits. TANF went into effect in 1996 and many of the
families enrolled in the program are now reaching their 5-year limit.
Five hundred families in Hawaii will be cut off in December of this
year. In some states, thousands of families already have been cut off
because the TANF law allows states to have even shorter time limits.
The recession we now are suffering cost 415,000 jobs in October 2001
alone. Thousands more jobs lost in November spread economic
vulnerability through wider segments of our population. This
vulnerability is especially severe for TANF families. In October,
111,000 jobs were lost in the service sector, where many current and
former TANF recipients have been employed. Layoffs are especially harsh
for TANF families that do not qualify for unemployment insurance and
who are no longer eligible for welfare. Of the 415,000 people who lost
their jobs in October, only 40 percent were eligible for unemployment
insurance. Of the thousands of workers who are not protected by the
unemployment insurance system, many are mothers who have left TANF for
the labor market.
According to its proponents, TANF promotes labor market work as the
way out of ``welfare dependency.'' Yet most of the jobs that are
available to recipients pay such low wages that fulltime employment
does not raise their families above the poverty line. So even for TANF
recipients who do have jobs, employment has not yielded economic
security. TANF actually impedes recipients' efforts to move into jobs
at living wages. TANF does not allow recipients to meet the work
requirement by pursuing post-secondary education; it limits vocational
education to one year; and it caps the percentage of recipients who can
be counted as engaged in a work activity by virtue of vocational
training.
TANF's work requirement stresses getting a job, any job, regardless
of what it pays, what benefits it provides, and whether the combination
of earnings and benefits are sufficient for a family to survive on. The
failure of TANF to count post-secondary education as a work activity is
its biggest hypocrisy and is one of the key problems H.R. 3113 seeks to
correct. Research has long established that women with education beyond
high school, especially a college education, are more likely to earn
living wages.
Child care is another nagging problem under TANF. Without dependable
and appropriate child care there is little hope for a parent to be able
to stay in an employment situation. Under the Family Support Act of
1988, child care was an entitlement. TANF repealed the entitlement for
individuals, making it even harder for poor mothers to assure care and
supervision to their children while they are away from home meeting
their work requirement. One of the powerful ideas in the 1996 welfare
debate was the strong view that one of the ways to help children in
welfare families is to find their fathers and make them provide child
support. TANF requires women seeking welfare to disclose the identities
of biological fathers and to help government locate them. It enforces
these requirements with new sanctions reducing family benefits when
mothers don't comply. These harsh provisions totally disregard a
mothers' own best judgment about what's best--and safest--for herself
and her children. What's more, TANF provides that all child support
money collected by the government stays with the government as
reimbursement for welfare.
What Congress needs to do is to undo punitive regulation of mothers
on welfare. Instead, we need to encourage states to make job training
and educational opportunities available to recipients so that leaving
welfare for the labor market means leaving poverty. We need to make it
possible for mothers to seek job training and education, as well as to
keep jobs that pay living wages. We need to treat women on welfare the
same way that we treat all women--with the respect, dignity, and rights
we all cherish for ourselves.
TANF needs to take into account the many different reasons that
people are forced to turn to welfare. Many poor mothers lack the skills
needed to land better-paying jobs. They need access to training and
education. Many cannot afford to be employed, because they lack child
care or can't find affordable transportation or aren't assured crucial
benefits such as health care. They need to be protected by all labor
laws, be guaranteed child care, and receive Medicaid benefits for as
long as they are income-eligible. Some mothers suffer from substance
abuse or mental health problems or debilitating illness or domestic
violence. These mothers need access to treatment, recovery, legal
remedies, and skills-building services before entering the labor
market. All children desperately need loving care in the home. Their
mothers need the resources and the flexibility to decide when their
children need a mother's care, not that of a sibling or baby sitter.
I urge my colleagues to consider H.R. 3113, which seeks to: 1. Expand
the definition of ``work activity'' to include education and job
training at all levels as well as a parent's caregiving for a child
under the age of six or over the age of six if ill or disabled or if
after school care is not provided: 2. Stop the 5 year clock from
running if the recipient is engaged in an allowable work activity,
including education and job training; 3. Prohibit full family sanctions
that punish whole families when the adult recipient doesn't meet a TANF
rule; 4. Make paternity establishment and child support enforcement
voluntary, while encouraging cooperation by directing all child support
collections to the family; 5. Count treatment for domestic and sexual
violence, mental health problems, and substance abuse as ``work
activities''; 6. Prohibit states from establishing ``family caps'' that
withhold benefits from a child born to a mother on welfare; 7. Replace
the ``illegitimacy bonus'' with a poverty reduction bonus for states
that lower poverty rates the most; 8. Restore the child care
entitlement for TANF families when the parent enters the labor market
or in a work activity leading to participation in the labor market; 9.
Guarantee equal access to TANF regardless of marital or citizen status
and enforcement antidiscrimination and labor laws, as well as due
process guarantees; 10. Stop the clock for all TANF families during
recession and temporarily restore TANF eligibility for families who
have exceeded their time limit but who are otherwise eligible
(recession equals 5.5% unemployment rate or higher); 11. Provide
incentives to states to provide programs to reduce barriers to
employment, to offer job training, and to encourage education; and 12.
Stipulate that the statutory purpose and goal of TANF is to reduce
child and family poverty.
These changes will put TANF to work helping mothers parent in dignity
and helping children grow up with economic security. I urge
[[Page H8403]]
my colleagues to join in support of H.R. 3113 by co-sponsoring this
legislation.
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