Welfare Reauthorization: A Side-By-Side Comparison of Current Law and Pending Welfare Reauthorization Proposals

Publication Date: December 2005

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

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Research Area: Social conditions

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Abstract:

The 109th Congress is considering legislation to reauthorize and amend programs that were created or revised in the 1996 welfare reform law. Early in 2005, the Senate Committees on Finance and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) reported their welfare reauthorization legislation (respectively, S. 667 and S. 525). These bills have yet to see floor action and remain pending in the Senate. The House passed welfare reauthorization as part of its spending budget reconciliation bill (the House-passed version of S. 1932). The Senate-passed spending reconciliation bill does not include welfare reauthorization provisions.

Both the Senate Finance Committee bill and the House reconciliation bill would reauthorize through FY2010 and revise the block grant of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). They both revise TANF work participation standards aimed to require more families on the welfare rolls to work or participate in job preparation activities. The Senate committee bill would allow a broad range of activities engaged in by recipients to count toward meeting these standards, while the House bill would narrow the focus of activities to work or "workfare" outside of a four-month period.

Both the Senate committee and House reconciliation bills also would establish $200 million per year in grants to promote "healthy" marriages. Both the Senate committee and House reconciliation bills would extend and increase funding for mandatory child care, though the size of the funding increase is a major difference between the two proposals -- $6 billion over five years in the Senate committee bill and $0.5 billion over five years in the House bill. Both would also reauthorize the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), increasing its authorization to $3.1 billion by FY2010, and would revise CCDBG rules, including those related to making school-readiness a program goal and increasing the percentage of funds to improve the quality of child care.

Both the Senate committee and House reconciliation bills would revise the Child Support Enforcement program to provide financing options for states to pay more collected child support to families on TANF or who have left the rolls. (Generally, federal and state governments keep child support collected for TANF families as reimbursement for their welfare costs.) The Senate committee bill would provide partial federal funding for child support passed through to families -- up to $400 per month for one child and $600 per month for two or more children. The House bill would provide partial federal funding to states that increase the amount of passed-through child support. The House reconciliation bill also would reduce federal funding to the states to operate their child support programs. Both Senate committee and House bills would also establish "responsible fatherhood" programs to fund activities to increase the participation of noncustodial parents in their children's lives. The Senate committee bill would provide $50 million per year in mandatory funding (and authorize another $26 million per year); the House reconciliation bill would authorize (but not provide funding) for up to $20 million per year. This report will be updated as needed.