Temporary Assistance for Needy Families TANF

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, signed by President Bill Clinton on August 22, 1996, after negotiations with a Republican Congress, replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children, a cash program dating to 1935. The new program gives each state a fixed block grant, 16.5 billion dollars a year in total, which states must match with some of their own spending. Families generally may receive federally funded cash aid for no more than 60 months in a lifetime, and states must have a share of adult recipients working or preparing for work.

States have wide freedom over how to use the money. Only about a fifth of TANF and related state spending now goes to basic cash assistance, with the rest going to child care, work programs, child welfare, tax credits, and other services. Benefit levels vary widely, and in many states a family of three receives less than a quarter of the poverty line. The number of families receiving cash aid fell from about 4.4 million in 1996 to fewer than 1 million in recent years.

The block grant has not been raised since 1996, so inflation has cut its value by about 40 percent. Supporters credit welfare reform with moving many single mothers into work and cutting dependency. Critics say the program now reaches few poor families, that some states have used funds for unrelated purposes, and that it responds poorly in recessions. Congress has extended TANF mostly through short-term laws for years without a full reauthorization.