Revised August 22, 2002

 THE SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE’S “TRI-PARTISAN” TANF REAUTHORIZATION BILL
 by Shawn Fremstad and Sharon Parrott[1]

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Overview

On June 26, 2002, the Senate Finance Committee approved TANF reauthorization legislation on a 13-8 vote.  Three Republicans — Senators Hatch (R-UT), Snowe (R-ME), and Murkowski (R-AK) — and Senator Jeffords (I-VT) joined all of the Democrats on the Finance Committee, except Senator Daschle (D-SD), in supporting the bill.  The Finance Committee’s bill is based on the provisions of the so-called “Tri-partisan Agreement,” a set of changes to the TANF law agreed upon earlier this year by Senators Hatch, Snowe, Jeffords, Breaux (D-LA), Lincoln (D-AR), and Rockefeller (D-WV).

This paper analyzes the Senate Finance Committee bill.  It finds:
The House bill does not give states additional options for providing benefits to legal immigrants.
While the approach taken by the Senate Finance Committee is a substantial improvement on the bill passed by the House earlier this year, it has several limitations that should be addressed when it is considered by the full Senate.

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End Note:

[1] Mark Greenberg, Vicki Turetsky and Jennifer Mezey of the Center for Law and Social Policy provided helpful comments on this paper.