Mr. Chairman, as we take up the question of how to reauthorize the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, I think we should focus on two goals: helping able-bodied recipients find the work that they need while protecting the safety net for struggling parents who are unable to do work because of disability, family crisis, or the fact that there’s not a job available. I believe much more work remains to be done on both counts.
We’re caught up in the millions and the billions quite appropriately. But this is about looking into the face of one child who is left homeless on the streets because there’s no protection. Or it is about one in four children in this country who wakes up not knowing if there will be food at the end of the day from their family.
We should be concerned about strip clubs or any abuse of this system and see that those who abuse these programs do not receive assistance whether they’re a pharmaceutical manufacturer or an individual welfare recipient. But I think our concern must be much broader. We should be concerned about protection that is stripped from the many needy families across this country.
Even though the number of eligible poor families has increased substantially in these hard economic times, the participation in TANF has not increased by a similar ammount. In 2009, only one of every five children in poverty across America received any direct TANF assistance -- the lowest level of poor children receiving cash assistance since 1965.
And in Texas, of course, matters are worse we only about one out of every twenty poor children receiving assistance. And when assistance is received, a family of three could expect to get about $244 a month -- less than 20 percent of the generally accepted poverty line.
TANF has become, I believe, more hole than safety net, protecting fewer and fewer families as more and more have fallen deeper into poverty. We all want to see more families advance from TANF into full employment and the middle class. But so many are just struggling to just stay in the situation that they have now and have lost their chance to participate in the middle class. That goal is not achieved when caseloads decline due to a lack of access for poor families rather than a decline in the number of poor families.
With fewer poor children and their families receiving TANF, now is not the time to do even less with significant spending reductions. I’m pleased to hear the chairman indicate that we might move fowrad with an extension, even if temporary, and I’m hopeful that extention will include the supplemental grant program that has already expired this summer. That’s what Texas and 16 other states rely upon, they would see up to a ten percent reduction in TANF funding without that.
Over 15 years ago, as part of the 1996 reform of the welfare law, a reform that I personally supported, TANF Supplemental Grant funds were set aside to help the States that were negatively affected by the federal formula. Ever since, Texas and a number of States have depended on these monies in order to provide assistance that their families need even at the relatively low levels that Texas funds.
Without action on this issue, states will lose more than $3 billion over the next ten years, $500 million of that in my state of Texas. The loss of these grants would place at risk a range of vital services, including efforts to ensure that children are cared for in their homes, child care assistance for working families, and job training.
With funding for TANF expiring at the end of this month, it seems unlikely that Congress will design comprehensive legislation to reauthorize it. I do hope we can come together on a bipartisan temporary extension.
Lest Mr. Chairman I direct all of my concerns at Republicans, of which I have many, I must concede that the Administration has largely been missing in action on this issue which impacts the lives of so many of our most vulnerable neighbors. I would urge the Administration to provide some leadership on improving the TANF program as we approach the current authorization expiration at the end of the month.
