TANF Reauthorization News
Provided by the Michigan League for Human Services
November 4, 2005
Update on U.S. House and Senate Activities Regarding Human Services
House- The Agriculture Committee passed, largely along party lines, a bill that would eliminate the option for states to make TANF recipients categorically eligible for Food Stamps (Michigan makes use of this option). If states cannot grant TANF recipients automatic categorical eligibility, it will likely result in many TANF recipients and others not receiving Food Stamp benefits for which they are eligible. The committee also increased the number of years that legal immigrants must live in the United States before they can receive Food Stamps from five to seven. Both of these adjustments are expected to reduce Food Stamp spending by millions of dollars, but will also result in many needy families not getting the food assistance they need.
Medicaid, child support collection, SSI and foster care programs are also in jeopardy. More information on Medicaid cuts can be found on the website for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities website at http://www.cbpp.org/10-28-05health.htm. Child support, SSI and foster care changes are described in detail by the Coalition on Human Needs at http://www.chn.org/humanneeds/051028a.html.
Finally, the TANF reauthorization proposal that the U.S. House passed in 2002 and 2004 has reappeared, this time as part of a larger bill approved by the House Ways and Means Committee. This bill increases the weekly work requirements from 30 to 40, but only increases child care funding by $500 million. (Previous House-passed bills have increased it by $1 billion, while the U.S. Senate last year increased child care funding by $7 billion.)
The full U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on a reconciliation bill next week (see below for information about call-in days during the week).
Senate- The U.S. Senate passed its budget reconciliation?bill yesterday 52-47, with five Republicans voting against it and two Democrats voting for it (both of Michigan?s senators voted against it). More information on the bill can be found in the article here. Generally, this bill is much more favorable to human services than the bill that is likely to come before the House next week, as it shields Food Stamps and most other programs from deep cuts.
****************
NATIONAL CALL-IN WEEK TO PROTECT HUMAN SERVICES
TOLL FREE NUMBER: 800-426-8073
CALL YOUR U.S. REPRESENTATIVE THE WEEK OF NOVEMBER 7. Early in the week is best!
The House of Representatives is expected to vote during the week of November 7 on proposals to cut assistance for some of the most vulnerable people in America. These cuts are proposed to help cover the cost of tax breaks primarily targeted to wealthy Americans and to pay for Katrina relief. ?Please call your representative and tell him or her to vote NO on the reconciliation bill to cut $50 billion in vital services to vulnerable people.
Changes in important human services programs include:
Food Stamps:
- Limits categorical eligibility for non-cash TANF recipients.? This proposal would make more than 300,000 low-income people nationwide ineligible for Food stamps in an average month. Michigan would be especially affected by this cut.?
- The five year bar on food stamp eligibility for adult?legal?immigrants?would be extended to seven years.
?
?
Medicaid:
????????? Changes Medicaid to make children, families, elders, and people with disabilities pay more and/or receive less. Those with incomes at or above the poverty level will for the first time be subject to pay for premiums if states choose to impose them.
????????? Except for children in families below the poverty line, pregnant women and a few others, the bill gives states the option to require Medicaid recipients to pay towards the cost of medical and prescription drug costs, up to 5 percent of their income.
????????? The bill imposes many restrictions related to people transferring assets in order to qualify for Medicaid nursing home care, some of which may exclude people who are not sheltering assets.
?
TANF and Child Care
?
- Ratchets up the work requirements?70 percent of the caseload will be required to work 40 hours a week?while reducing access to vocational education and other services that would help parents leave assistance for work at real jobs with decent pay.
- Provides only $500 million in additional child care spending over the next five years, far below what was approved by the Senate last year ($7 billion) and below what is needed just to keep up with inflation. With the new work requirements, this means that in 2010, 270,000 fewer children nationwide will receive child care assistance than in 2004.
????????? Claims to add a net $1 billion in TANF spending over 5 years, even though no money is added over current expenditures. The bill continues the $319 billion a year in existing supplemental grants to low-income states, but misleadingly counts them as new money.
????????? The real new spending in the bill ? a meager $500 million over 5 years for child care and $1 billion for marriage promotion activities ? is paid for by eliminating current bonuses to states for high performance in job placement, retention, earnings, families' access to certain support services, and reduction of out of wedlock births.
?
Supplemental Security Income?
?
- Makes poor seniors or people with disabilities wait longer for the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments they are owed. SSI typically takes many months to approve new cases while applicants hang on, piling up bills with little or no other income coming in. Currently, people can receive a lump sum payment of up to 12 months of back benefits after they are approved, helping them to pay off debt. The new proposal would only allow a lump sum of up to 3 months, with the rest paid out in installments. Part of the savings from this proposal will occur because some people will die and never receive the remainder they are owed.
?
?
Child Support
????????? Cuts child support enforcement by nearly $5 billion over 5 years by steadily reducing the federal share of the costs. According to an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office, this will result in a 5-year loss of $7.9 billion in collections that would otherwise have gone to support low-income children. Over 10 years, the loss to children in single-parent families is estimated at $24.1 billion.
?
Foster Care
????????? Negatively affects certain poor grandparents or other relatives caring for their relative's children. If the children are living with low-income relatives because they were removed from their parents' home, a federal appeals court ruled that their relative caregivers' low income should qualify them for federal foster care assistance. The bill would overturn this ruling by requiring the child's eligibility to be based on the financial circumstances of their parents when they were living with them (even though that's not where the child now resides). The bill also would limit foster care assistance to relatives by imposing strict licensing requirements on a fast timetable ? those who couldn't comply would lose support. Together, these cuts would amount to about $600 million over 5 years.
We apologize if you are on multiple e-mail lists and receive this e-mail message more than once.? If you do not regularly receive these free budget updates but would like to do so in the future, please email your request to pkillips@....
?
?
?
Having problems with message search?
Offline 
Send Email