So let’s take a look at the facts.
In 2006, Congress replaced the failed Aid to Families with Dependent Children program with TANF — the Temporary Aid for Needy Families program. TANF made two major changes: It gave states more flexibility in running their welfare programs, but second, able-bodied welfare recipients would have to work.
Section 407, entitled “Mandatory Work Requirements,” was the centerpiece of the legislation. It requires that states reduce or terminate payments to individuals who refuse to work without good cause.
But Congress knew well that states (or a work-hostile administration) might try to manipulate their regulations to skirt the work requirement. So it established a second requirement: To be eligible for federal TANF funds, state welfare programs “shall achieve” minimum work-participation rates for welfare recipients: 50 percent for all families and 90 percent for two-parent families.
Congress also defined what counts as “work” (so the bureaucrats couldn’t count Weight Watchers or smoking-cessation therapy) and how participation rates must be calculated. And it put a hard 30 percent cap on the proportion of a state’s welfare recipients who could participate in educational activities and still be counted as engaged in work.
When Congress was done, there wasn’t any room for gaming.
And that’s where things stood until last month, when the Obama administration announced it would grant waivers authorizing states to evade Section 407’s “definitions of work activities and engagement, specified limitations, verification procedures, and the calculation of participation rates.”So let’s take a look at the facts.
Facebook
Twitter