Republicans Reexamining Work Rules in Clinton-Era Assistance Program

A ‘Now Hiring’ sign is displayed outside a Jiffy Lube location in Los Angeles, Calif., on Feb. 2, 2023. Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images

Social workers told a subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee that work requirements in the Temporary Aid for Need Families (TANF) program doesn’t fully capture everything a client is doing to pull themselves out of poverty.

“You can job search for 86 hours in a month, but it doesn’t measure what the customer is achieving,” said Shakirah Francis, a social work supervisor from Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. “It’s just a number.”

Francis testified before the Welfare and Family Support subcommittee for the “Welfare Is Broken: Restoring Work Requirements to Life Americans Out of Poverty” hearing on March 29.

Chairman Rep. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) said the group aimed to find and fix what is no longer working in the Clinton-era program.

Construction workers on a job site in Miami , Fla., on March 10, 2023. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

“We must reform TANF to uplift recipients to a path of self-sufficiency and bolster our workforce,” LaHood said.

LaHood said TANF was born out of the 1996 Bipartisan Welfare Reform Act. The legislation tied work requirements to receiving welfare benefits. LaHood said the move had many positive effects.

According to LaHood, welfare caseloads dropped by 80 percent as people went to work. He said less than 1 percent of families are in deep poverty today. However, it could have been a better plan, and over time, issues have arisen.

Witnesses confirmed what LaHood told the hearing. States have found loopholes, often to work around requirements that were counterproductive or didn’t make sense. LaHood said that in 2021, 57 percent of work-eligible participants in the program reported zero work hours.

Heather Reynolds is the managing director of the Lab for Economic Opportunities at the University of Notre Dame. She told the story of Rosa, a woman with young children and a husband earning about $20,000 per year.

Signage for a job fair in New York City, on Sept. 3, 2021. Andrew Kelly/Reuters

Rosa received TANF benefits until the Notre Dame program found her a job. Rosa quit her job within weeks of being hired. So, the program found her another job, which she also left. Reynolds said that, on its face, this appears to be a story of someone who doesn’t want to work.

Reynolds said there was more to the story.

Rosa could not afford quality childcare, so she would quit her job rather than leave her children in less-than-ideal situations. Once they knew the issue, Reynolds said they could find temporary funding to help with childcare until Rosa could get on her feet and afford to pay it herself.

“Rosa benefited from flexible funding,” Reynolds said.

She encouraged the committee to consider allowing TANF funds to be used in evidence-based programs for various needs. Francis agreed.

She said many of her customers are dealing with more than just unemployment. Mental health issues, drug addiction, abusive homes, and legal problems are common. She told of one young man who wanted a better job, but that required completing his GED or some job-training program. He would have to give up his TANF benefits to do either because education and training don’t qualify as work.

Sometimes ‘It’s Better in the Long Run’

She said she and other social workers have had to help people by temporarily giving up some benefits.

“Sometimes, if they are not keeping the [work requirement] rate, we’ll just keep them in the program because it’s better for them in the long run,” Francis said.

LaHood said that with a work participation rate of 62.5 percent—lower than before the pandemic—America can’t afford to leave the program as it is. He said there are currently 11 million jobs, or 1.7 jobs for every unemployed worker.

“We cannot afford to relegate an entire generation of workers to the sidelines,” LaHood said.