February 13, 2003

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

To reauthorize and improve the program of block grants to States for temporary assistance for needy families, improve access to quality child care, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Personal Responsibility, Work, and Family Promotion Act of 2003'.

SEC. 2. TABLE OF CONTENTS.

The table of contents of this Act is as follows:

Sec. 1. Short title.

Sec. 2. Table of contents.

Sec. 3. References.

Sec. 4. Findings.

TITLE I--TANF

Sec. 101. Purposes.

Sec. 102. Family assistance grants.

Sec. 103. Promotion of family formation and healthy marriage.

Sec. 104. Supplemental grant for population increases in certain States.

Sec. 105. Bonus to reward employment achievement.

Sec. 106. Contingency fund.

Sec. 107. Use of funds.

Sec. 108. Repeal of Federal loan for State welfare programs.

Sec. 109. Universal engagement and family self-sufficiency plan requirements.

Sec. 110. Work participation requirements.

Sec. 111. Maintenance of effort.

Sec. 112. Performance improvement.

Sec. 113. Data collection and reporting.

Sec. 114. Direct funding and administration by Indian tribes.

Sec. 115. Research, evaluations, and national studies.

Sec. 116. Studies by the Census Bureau and the General Accounting Office.

Sec. 117. Definition of assistance.

Sec. 118. Technical corrections.

Sec. 119. Fatherhood program.

Sec. 120. State option to make TANF programs mandatory partners with one-stop employment training centers.

Sec. 121. Sense of the Congress.

Sec. 122. Extension through fiscal year 2003.

TITLE II--CHILD CARE

Sec. 201. Short title.

Sec. 202. Goals.

Sec. 203. Authorization of appropriations.

Sec. 204. Application and plan.

Sec. 205. Activities to improve the quality of child care.

Sec. 206. Report by secretary.

Sec. 207. Definitions.

Sec. 208. Entitlement funding.

TITLE III--CHILD SUPPORT

Sec. 301. Federal matching funds for limited pass through of child support payments to families receiving TANF.

Sec. 302. State option to pass through all child support payments to families that formerly received TANF.

Sec. 303. Mandatory review and adjustment of child support orders for families receiving TANF.

Sec. 304. Mandatory fee for successful child support collection for family that has never received TANF.

Sec. 305. Report on undistributed child support payments.

Sec. 306. Use of new hire information to assist in administration of unemployment compensation programs.

Sec. 307. Decrease in amount of child support arrearage triggering passport denial.

Sec. 308. Use of tax refund intercept program to collect past-due child support on behalf of children who are not minors.

Sec. 309. Garnishment of compensation paid to veterans for service-connected disabilities in order to enforce child support obligations.

Sec. 310. Improving Federal debt collection practices.

Sec. 311. Maintenance of technical assistance funding.

Sec. 312. Maintenance of Federal Parent Locator Service funding.

TITLE IV--CHILD WELFARE

Sec. 401. Extension of authority to approve demonstration projects.

Sec. 402. Elimination of limitation on number of waivers.

Sec. 403. Elimination of limitation on number of States that may be granted waivers to conduct demonstration projects on same topic.

Sec. 404. Elimination of limitation on number of waivers that may be granted to a single State for demonstration projects.

Sec. 405. Streamlined process for consideration of amendments to and extensions of demonstration projects requiring waivers.

Sec. 406. Availability of reports.

Sec. 407. Technical correction.

TITLE V--SUPPLEMENTAL SECURITY INCOME

Sec. 501. Review of State agency blindness and disability determinations.

TITLE VI--STATE AND LOCAL FLEXIBILITY

Sec. 601. Program coordination demonstration projects.

Sec. 602. State food assistance block grant demonstration project.

TITLE VII--ABSTINENCE EDUCATION

Sec. 701. Extension of abstinence education program.

TITLE VIII--TRANSITIONAL MEDICAL ASSISTANCE

Sec. 801. Extension of medicaid transitional medical assistance program through fiscal year 2004.

Sec. 802. Adjustment to payments for medicaid administrative costs to prevent duplicative payments and to fund extension of transitional medical assistance.

TITLE IX--EFFECTIVE DATE

Sec. 901. Effective date.

SEC. 3. REFERENCES.

Except as otherwise expressly provided, wherever in this Act an amendment or repeal is expressed in terms of an amendment to, or repeal of, a section or other provision, the amendment or repeal shall be considered to be made to a section or other provision of the Social Security Act.

SEC. 4. FINDINGS.

The Congress makes the following findings:

(1) The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Program established by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-193) has succeeded in moving families from welfare to work and reducing child poverty.

(A) There has been a dramatic increase in the employment of current and former welfare recipients. The percentage of working recipients reached an all-time high in fiscal year 1999 and continued steady in fiscal years 2000 and 2001. In fiscal year 2001, 33 percent of adult recipients were working, compared to less than 7 percent in fiscal year 1992, and 11 percent in fiscal year 1996. All States met the overall participation rate standard in fiscal year 2001, as did the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

(B) Earnings for welfare recipients remaining on the rolls have also increased significantly, as have earnings for female-headed households. The increases have been particularly large for the bottom 2 income quintiles, that is, those women who are most likely to be former or present welfare recipients.

(C) Welfare dependency has plummeted. As of June 2002, 2,025,000 families and 5,008,000 individuals were receiving assistance. Accordingly, the number of families in the welfare caseload and the number of individuals receiving cash assistance declined 54 percent and 58 percent, respectively, since the enactment of TANF. These declines have persisted even as unemployment rates have increased: unemployment rates nationwide rose 50 percent, from 3.9 percent in September 2000 to 6 percent in November 2002, while welfare caseloads continued to decline.

(D) The child poverty rate continued to decline between 1996 and 2001, falling 20 percent from 20.5 to 16.3 percent. The 2001 child poverty rate remains at the lowest level since 1979. Child poverty rates for African-American and Hispanic children have also fallen dramatically during the past 6 years. African-American child poverty is at the lowest rate on record and Hispanic child poverty is at the lowest level reported in over 20 years.

(E) Despite these gains, States have had mixed success in fully engaging welfare recipients in work activities. While all States have met the overall work participation rates required by law, in 2001, in an average month, only just over 1/3 of all families with an adult participated in work activities that were countable toward the State's participation rate. Five jurisdictions failed to meet the more rigorous 2-parent work requirements, and 19 jurisdictions (States and territories) are not subject to the 2-parent requirements, most because they moved their 2-parent cases to separate State programs where they are not subject to a penalty for failing the 2-parent rates.

(2) As a Nation, we have made substantial progress in reducing teen pregnancies and births, slowing increases in nonmarital childbearing, and improving child support collections and paternity establishment.

(A) The teen birth rate has fallen continuously since 1991, down a dramatic 22 percent by 2000. During the period of 1991-2000, teenage birth rates fell in all States and the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Declines also have spanned age, racial, and ethnic groups. There has been success in lowering the birth rate for both younger and older teens. The birth rate for those 15-17 years of age is down 29 percent since 1991, and the rate for those 18 and 19 is down 16 percent. Between 1991 and 2000, teen birth rates declined for all women ages 15-19--white, African American, American Indian, Asian or Pacific Islander, and Hispanic women ages 15-19. The rate for African American teens--until recently the highest--experienced the largest decline, down 31 percent from 1991 to 2000, to reach the lowest rate ever reported for this group. Most births to teens are nonmarital; in 2000, about 73 percent of the births to teens aged 15-19 occurred outside of marriage.

(B) Nonmarital childbearing continued to increase slightly in 2001, however not at the sharp rates of increase seen in recent decades. The birth rate among unmarried women in 2001 was 4 percent lower than its peak reached in 1994, while the proportion of births occurring outside of marriage has remained at approximately 33 percent since 1998.

(C) The negative consequences of out-of-wedlock birth on the mother, the child, the family, and society are well documented. These include increased likelihood of welfare dependency, increased risks of low birth weight, poor cognitive development, child abuse and neglect, and teen parenthood, and decreased likelihood of having an intact marriage during adulthood.

(D) An estimated 24,500,000 children do not live with their biological fathers, and 7,100,000 children do not live with their biological mothers. These facts are attributable largely to declining marriage rates, increasing divorce rates, and increasing rates of nonmarital births during the latter part of the 20th century.

(E) There has been a dramatic rise in cohabitation as marriages have declined. Only 40 percent of children of cohabiting couples will see their parents marry. Those who do marry

experience a 50 percent higher divorce rate. Children in single-parent households and cohabiting households are at much higher risk of child abuse than children in intact married and stepparent families.

(F) Children who live apart from their biological fathers, on average, are more likely to be poor, experience educational, health, emotional, and psychological problems, be victims of child abuse, engage in criminal behavior, and become involved with the juvenile justice system than their peers who live with their married, biological mother and father. A child living in a single-parent family is nearly 5 times as likely to be poor as a child living in a married-couple family. In 2001, in married-couple families, the child poverty rate was 8 percent, and in households headed by a single mother, the poverty rate was 39.3 percent.

(G) Since the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, child support collections within the child support enforcement system have grown every year, increasing from $12,000,000,000 in fiscal year 1996 to nearly $19,000,000,000 in fiscal year 2001. The number of paternities established or acknowledged in fiscal year 2002 reached an historic high of over 1,500,000--which includes more than a 100 percent increase through in-hospital acknowledgement programs to 790,595 in 2001 from 324,652 in 1996. Child support collections were made in well over 7,000,000 cases in fiscal year 2000, significantly more than the almost 4,000,000 cases having a collection in 1996.

(3) The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 gave States great flexibility in the use of Federal funds to develop innovative programs to help families leave welfare and begin employment and to encourage the formation of 2-parent families.

(A) Total Federal and State TANF expenditures in fiscal year 2001 were $25,500,000,000, up from $24,000,000,000 in fiscal year 2000 and $22,600,000,000 in fiscal year 1999. This increased spending is attributable to significant new investments in supportive services in the TANF program, such as child care and activities to support work.

(B) Since the welfare reform effort began there has been a dramatic increase in work participation (including employment, community service, and work experience) among welfare recipients, as well as an unprecedented reduction in the caseload because recipients have left welfare for work.

(C) States are making policy choices and investment decisions best suited to the needs of their citizens.

(i) To expand aid to working families, all States disregard a portion of a family's earned income when determining benefit levels.

(ii) Most States increased the limits on countable assets above the former Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. Every State has increased the vehicle asset level above the prior AFDC limit for a family's primary automobile.

(iii) States are experimenting with programs to promote marriage and father involvement. Over half the States have eliminated restrictions on 2-parent families. Many States use TANF, child support, or State funds to support community-based activities to help fathers become more involved in their children's lives or strengthen relationships between mothers and fathers.

(4) Therefore, it is the sense of the Congress that increasing success in moving families from welfare to work, as well as in promoting healthy marriage and other means of improving child well-being, are very important Government interests and the policy contained in part A of title IV of the Social Security Act (as amended by this Act) is intended to serve these ends.

TITLE I--TANF

SEC. 101. PURPOSES.

Section 401(a) (42 U.S.C. 601(a)) is amended--

(1) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by striking `increase' and inserting `improve child well-being by increasing';

(2) in paragraph (1), by inserting `and services' after `assistance';

(3) in paragraph (2), by striking `parents on government benefits' and inserting `families on government benefits and reduce poverty'; and

(4) in paragraph (4), by striking `two-parent families' and inserting `healthy, 2-parent married families, and encourage responsible fatherhood'.

SEC. 102. FAMILY ASSISTANCE GRANTS.

(a) EXTENSION OF AUTHORITY- Section 403(a)(1)(A) (42 U.S.C. 603(a)(1)(A)) is amended--

(1) by striking `1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2002' and inserting `2004 through 2008'; and

(2) by inserting `payable to the State for the fiscal year' before the period.

(b) STATE FAMILY ASSISTANCE GRANT- Section 403(a)(1) (42 U.S.C. 603(a)(1)) is amended by striking subparagraphs (B) through (E) and inserting the following:

`(B) STATE FAMILY ASSISTANCE GRANT- The State family assistance grant payable to a State for a fiscal year shall be the amount that bears the same ratio to the amount specified in subparagraph (C) of this paragraph as the amount required to be paid to the State under this paragraph for fiscal year 2002 (determined without regard to any reduction pursuant to section 409 or 412(a)(1)) bears to the total amount required to be paid under this paragraph for fiscal year 2002 (as so determined).

`(C) APPROPRIATION- Out of any money in the Treasury of the United States not otherwise appropriated, there are appropriated for each of fiscal years 2004 through 2008 $16,566,542,000 for grants under this paragraph.'.

(c) MATCHING GRANTS FOR THE TERRITORIES- Section 1108(b)(2) (42 U.S.C. 1308(b)(2)) is amended by striking `1997 through 2002' and inserting `2004 through 2008'.

SEC. 103. PROMOTION OF FAMILY FORMATION AND HEALTHY MARRIAGE.

(a) STATE PLANS- Section 402(a)(1)(A) (42 U.S.C. 602(a)(1)(A)) is amended by adding at the end the following:

`(vii) Encourage equitable treatment of married, 2-parent families under the program referred to in clause (i).'.

(b) HEALTHY MARRIAGE PROMOTION GRANTS; REPEAL OF BONUS FOR REDUCTION OF ILLEGITIMACY RATIO- Section 403(a)(2) (42 U.S.C. 603(a)(2)) is amended to read as follows:

`(2) HEALTHY MARRIAGE PROMOTION GRANTS-

`(A) AUTHORITY- The Secretary shall award competitive grants to States, territories, and tribal organizations for not more than 50 percent of the cost of developing and implementing innovative programs to promote and support healthy, married, 2-parent families.

`(B) HEALTHY MARRIAGE PROMOTION ACTIVITIES- Funds provided under subparagraph (A) shall be used to support any of the following programs or activities:

`(i) Public advertising campaigns on the value of marriage and the skills needed to increase marital stability and health.

`(ii) Education in high schools on the value of marriage, relationship skills, and budgeting.

`(iii) Marriage education, marriage skills, and relationship skills programs, that may include parenting skills, financial management, conflict resolution, and job and career advancement, for non-married pregnant women and non-married expectant fathers.

`(iv) Pre-marital education and marriage skills training for engaged couples and for couples or individuals interested in marriage.

This is a lengthy bill, for full text click here.