Below are Center analyses of various aspects of TANF reauthorization,
along with a brief description of each analysis. Some of documents
listed below were done in collaboration with the Center for Law and
Social Policy (CLASP). Additional CLASP analyses of TANF reauthorization
are available on the CLASP
website.
Analyses of Current TANF Reauthorization Legislation and Proposals:
by Sharon Parrott and Shawn Fremstad
This paper analyses the TANF
reauthorization bill that passed the Senate Finance Committee on
September 10.
 View the report
by Sharon Parrott, Heidi Goldberg, and Shawn Fremstad
This report analyzes the welfare bill the House is expected to consider
during the week of February 10, 2003.
View the report
by Robert Greenstein
View the report
by Sharon Parrott, Wendell Primus, and Shawn Fremstad
This analysis finds that, taken as a whole, the Administration’s
proposal would substantially limit the flexibility states currently have
to design welfare-to-work programs.
View the report
Side-by-Side Comparisons of TANF Legislation:
These tables, done collaboratively with the Center for Law and Social
Policy, provide side-by-side comparisons of various provisions in TANF
reauthorization legislation.
These tables are updated periodically to reflect
legislative developments.
View
previous versions of Side-by-Side TANF Comparisons.
View the report
TANF and Child Care Funding:
by Sharon Parrott, Jennifer Mezey, Mark Greenberg, and
Shawn Fremstad
Prepared jointly with the Center for Law and Social Policy,
this report finds that an OMB estimate — that the number of low-income
children receiving child care assistance would drop 200,000 by 2009,
under the President’s budget — significantly understates the decline in
child care assistance the budget would cause.
View the report
by Sharon Parrott, Jennifer Mezey, Mark Greenberg, and
Shawn Fremstad
This report (prepared jointly with the Center for Law and
Social Policy) analyses recent Administration misstatements about the
level of child care funding included in the TANF reauthorization bills
that have been approved by the House and the Senate Finance Committee.
View the report
by Sharon Parrott
View the report
by Sharon Parrott
View the report
by Shawn Fremstad
This analysis explains why state fiscal relief and TANF reserve funds do
not obviate the need for substantial increases in child care funding as
part of TANF reauthorization legislation.
View the report
by Sharon Parrott and Jennifer Mezey
This joint report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the
Center for Law and Social Policy shows that without increased child care
funding, hundreds of thousands of children in low-income working
families stand to lose access to child care assistance even if TANF work
participation requirements are left unchanged.
View the report
by Sharon Parrott and Nina Wu
View the report
by Zoë Neuberger, Shawn Fremstad and Sharon Parrott
View the report
by Zoë Neuberger
This paper highlights the first available data on total TANF
expenditures in fiscal year 2002. Treasury data released last week shows
that states spent $18.7 billion in federal TANF funds in fiscal year
2002, some $2.2 billion more than the basic block grant, by drawing on
reserves from prior years.
View the report
by Sharon Parrott and Zoë Neuberger
This paper examines whether states have sufficient TANF funding. It
finds that the House TANF reauthorization bill, which freezes TANF
funding at its current level and provides less child care funding than
is needed to keep pace with inflation, would force states to cut back on
benefits and services they now provide to low-income working families.
View the report
by Shawn Fremstad and Zoë Neuberger
This analysis finds that 1 to 2 million families receive TANF-funded
services without being counted in the TANF caseload. It notes that the
argument advanced by some that additional TANF funding is not needed
because welfare caseloads have declined fails to take into account the
growing number of these “uncounted” cases.
View the report
Welfare-to-Work:
by Shawn Fremstad
This paper reviews recent welfare reform research and discusses the
policy implications of the new research.
View the report
by Heidi Goldberg
This paper finds that the House TANF reauthorization bill would limit
state flexibility to implement and operate innovative welfare-to-work
programs designed to help families overcome barriers to employment and
find better-paying jobs. It provides examples of successful
welfare-to-work programs that states would likely have to scale back or
discontinue in order to comply with the House legislation.
View the report [PDF]
by Sharon Parrott
This analysis examines the claim that more than half of welfare
recipients are not working or engaged in welfare-to-work programs. It
finds that statistics cited in support of this claim are based on
incomplete data that substantially understate the number of TANF
recipients who are actually participating in welfare-to-work programs.
View the report
Work Support Programs:
Transitional Medical Assistance, Food Stamps and Housing
by Stacy Dean, Dottie Rosenbaum, and Robert Greenstein
This paper analyzes a provision in the House TANF reauthorization bill
that would allow five states to elect a food stamp block grant in lieu
of the regular federal food stamp program. It finds that the provision
would eliminate protections for food stamp recipients and likely lead to
cuts in food benefits in states that opt to receive a block grant.
View
the report
by Leighton Ku and Edwin Park
This analysis reviews proposals to reauthorize transitional medical
assistance (TMA) and suggests changes that would improve the
effectiveness of TMA.
View the report
by Barbara Sard and Margy Waller
This paper issued jointly with The Brookings Institution Center on Urban
& Metropolitan Policy, summarizes recent research on the connection
between affordable housing and success at work, and makes a series of
policy recommendations for TANF reauthorization and related housing
legislation.
View the report
The "Superwaiver" Proposal:
by Shawn Fremstad and Sharon Parrott
Proponents of the House superwaiver say it is needed to improve the
coordination of low-income programs. The superwaiver is not necessary to
coordinate low-income programs and would be less effective and more
risky than several alternative policies aimed to improve program
coordination.
View the report
by Shawn Fremstad and Sharon Parrott
The House "superwaiver" could result in cuts in overall funding for
low-income programs and the elimination of essential federal protections
without Congressional involvement.
View the report
by Shawn Fremstad
This paper discusses the implications for the superwaiver debate of a
recent GAO report that identified a number of serious concerns about
recent health care waivers granted by HHS.
View the report
This paper analyzes the implications of the administration's Superwaiver
proposal for public housing and homelessness programs.
View the report
by Robert Greenstein, Shawn Fremstad, and Sharon
Parrott
This paper analyzes the “superwaiver” proposal that is included in the
House TANF reauthorization bill. It finds that the superwaiver would
give Executive Branch officials virtually unfettered authority to
approve waivers that effectively rewrite federal laws and alter the
fundamental nature of affected programs, including how program funds are
used, the level and nature of the benefits provided, and the target
populations served.
View the report [PDF]
This paper analyzes the impact the proposed “superwaiver” in the House
TANF reauthorization bill would have on the federal food stamp program.
View the report
by Dottie Rosenbaum
This paper explains that state options and waiver authority in the food
stamp program provide states with greater flexibility than is commonly
understood. It finds that the more sweeping waiver authority provided in
the superwaiver would allow states to eliminate reasonable federal
standards that currently exist in current food stamp program waiver
authority and should be maintained.
View the report
Background Reports:
These papers, done collaboratively with the
Center for Law and Social
Policy, examine key TANF reauthorization issues.
by Martha Coven
This brief paper provides basic information about the TANF block grant.
View the report
by Zoë Neuberger, Sharon Parrott, and Wendell Primus
This report examines issues that arise from the current funding
structure for TANF, including the fixed funding level of the block
grant, disparities in block grant allocations among states, and the lack
of a mechanism to provide additional resources to states during
recessions. It discusses proposals for addressing these issues in TANF
reauthorization.
View the report
by Shawn Fremstad
This paper summarizes restrictions that the 1996 welfare law placed on
the eligibility of legal immigrants for various benefits and reviews
research on the impact of these restrictions.
View the report
by Steve Savner, Julie Strawn, and Mark Greenberg
This analysis summarizes key features of the TANF law that relate to
work and reviews research regarding employment and earnings for families
moving from welfare to work. It provides recommendations for changes in
TANF that could improve employment outcomes for families.
View the report [PDF]
by Heidi Goldberg
This paper reviews research about the prevalence of barriers to
employment among TANF families. It discusses possible changes to TANF
that would improve states’ abilities to identify and serve families with
work barriers.
View the report
by Shawn Fremstad and Wendell Primus
This report reviews the current debate over TANF’s role in promoting
marriage and summarizes family formation trends. It includes
recommendations for changes that could strengthen families and increase
the number of children in stable two-parent families without
disadvantaging single-parent families.
View the report
These comments, submitted to the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services in November 2001, provide recommendations for changes to TANF
and related low-income programs.
View the report
TANF Reauthorization Bills from 2002:
by Shawn Fremstad, Sharon Parrott, Mark Greenberg,
Steve Savner, Vicki Turetsky, Jennifer Mezey
This joint CBPP\CLASP report finds that the “tri-partisan”
reauthorization bill passed by the Senate Finance Committee in June 2002
provides states with more flexibility and resources to help parents
succeed in the labor market than the House-passed TANF bill. The report
discusses thirteen major ways in which the Senate Finance bill reflects
a better approach to welfare reform than the House bill.
View the report [PDF]
by Shawn Fremstad and Sharon Parrott
This report analyzes the TANF Reauthorization bill passed by the Senate
Finance Committee on June 26, 2002. It finds that the Finance Committee
bill would hold states accountable for much higher work targets than
exist under current while providing states with greater flexibility to
meet these higher targets. The report concludes that the approach taken
by the Senate Finance Committee is a substantial improvement on the bill
passed by the House earlier this year, but also notes that there are
several limitations in the bill that should be addressed when it is
considered by the full Senate.
View the report
by Sharon Parrott, Shawn Fremstad and Zoë Neuberger
This report analyzes the TANF Reauthorization bill passed by the House
of Representatives on May 16, 2002. It finds that the House bill would
reduce state flexibility to design effective welfare-to-work programs
and freeze TANF funding at its current level even as it imposes costly
new mandates on states. The report also examines other provisions in the
bill, including provisions that provide funding for marriage promotion,
changes to child support rules, and the “superwaiver.”
View the report
by Sharon Parrott
This paper, prepared shortly after the President's budget was released
in February, reviews elements of the budget related to TANF, child care,
and child support.
View the report
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