S.Amdt. 2974

SA 2974. Mrs. LINCOLN submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by her to the bill H.R. 4, to reauthorize and improve the program of block grants to States for temporary assistance for needy families, improve access to quality child care, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

On page 217, between lines 9 and 10, insert the following:

(g) Sense of the Senate.--

(1) Findings.--The Senate makes the following findings:

(A) Under current law in the temporary assistance for needy families program established under part A of title IV of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 601 et seq.) (in this subsection referred to as “TANF”), a single parent with a child under age 6 must participate in work-related activities for at least 20 hours a week to count toward program participation rates. Other single parents must participate for at least 30 hours a week in order to count toward participation rates.

(B) Under current program rules, States have been very successful in increasing employment among families receiving welfare. Between 1994 and 2002, the nation's caseload fell from 5,000,000 to 2,000,000 families and most families that left welfare and are employed work full-time jobs.

(C) The Department of Health and Human Services reports that according to Census Bureau data, the employment rate among single mothers with children rose from 57 percent in 1994 to 70 percent in 2000. For single mothers with children under age 6, employment increased from 46 percent in 1994 to 64.5 percent in 2000. Employment rates among single mothers now exceed the rates of married mothers. While some of these employment gains have been lost during the recent period of labor market weakness, a significantly higher proportion of single mothers are employed today than in the mid-1990s.

(D) The design of the TANF block grant is intended to provide States with broad flexibility to decide how to further the employment and other goals of the program. States are free to set required hours of participation above the level that counts toward Federal participation rates, and some States have chosen to do so.

(E) The PRIDE Act increases the hours a recipient must participate in work activities to fully count toward the State's work participation rates from 20 hours a week to 24 hours a week for single parents of children under 6, and from 30 hours a week to 34 hours a week for other single parent families.

(F) There is no evidence that increasing the required hours of participation above those in the PRIDE Act would lead to States running better programs, or would lead to more families becoming employed. However, increasing the required hours of participation would add to program and child care costs. Most families receiving assistance (54 percent) have a child under the age of 6. Increasing child care costs for these families would force States to redirect resources that could be used to help other families get and keep jobs.

(G) The decision about whether to further increase the number of hours of participation for families above the levels set in the PRIDE Act is best left to State legislatures and Governors.

(2) Sense of the senate.--It is the sense of the Senate that any conference report or legislation enacted into law that reauthorizes TANF--

(A) should not increase hours of required program participation for families beyond the hours specified in the PRIDE Act; and

(B) should provide States with the flexibility they need in determining appropriate hours of program participation for families with young children to ensure that program requirements are consistent with family responsibilities and available resources.