[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 141 (Wednesday, September 21, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H6289-H6292]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SHORT-TERM TANF EXTENSION ACT
Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and
pass the bill (H.R. 2943) to extend the program of block grants to
States for temporary assistance for needy families and related programs
through December 31, 2011.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 2943
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 ``Short-Term TANF Extension
Act''.
SEC. 2. EXTENSION OF THE TEMPORARY ASSISTANCE FOR NEEDY
FAMILIES PROGRAM AND RELATED PROGRAMS THROUGH
DECEMBER 31, 2011.
(a) In General.--Activities authorized by part A of title
IV and section 1108(b) of the Social Security Act (other than
under subsections (a)(3) and (b) of section 403 of such Act)
shall continue through December 31, 2011, in the manner
authorized for fiscal year 2011, and out of any money in the
Treasury of the United States not otherwise appropriated,
there are hereby appropriated such sums as may be necessary
for such purpose. Grants and payments may be made pursuant to
this authority on a quarterly basis through the first quarter
of fiscal year 2012 at the level provided for such activities
for the corresponding quarter of fiscal year 2011.
(b) Maintenance of Effort.--Section 409(a)(7) of the Social
Security Act (42 U.S.C. 609(a)(7)) is amended--
(1) in subparagraph (A), by striking ``or 2012'' and
inserting ``2012, or 2013''; and
(2) in subparagraph (B)(ii), by striking ``2011'' and
inserting ``2012''.
SEC. 3. BUDGETARY EFFECTS.
The budgetary effects of this Act, for the purpose of
complying with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, shall
be determined by reference to the latest statement titled
``Budgetary Effects of PAYGO Legislation'' for this Act,
submitted for printing in the Congressional Record by the
Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, provided that such
statement has been submitted prior to the vote on passage.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Kentucky (Mr. Davis) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Kentucky.
General Leave
Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their
remarks and to include extraneous material on the subject of the bill
under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Kentucky?
There was no objection.
Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
I rise today in support of H.R. 2943, legislation to temporarily
extend the authorization of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and
related programs.
Since it replaced the New Deal-era welfare program in 1996, TANF has
been successful at cutting welfare dependents by 57 percent through the
end of last year. Even more importantly, by promoting work among single
parents, who are the most common welfare recipients, it helped
significantly reduce child poverty in female-headed families over time.
Even at today's elevated unemployment rates, TANF continues to
promote more work and earnings and less poverty. But despite this
general progress, TANF can and should be strengthened to do more,
especially to help more low-income families work and support themselves
in the years ahead. Unfortunately, too many parents are exempted from
work requirements today for a variety of reasons we learned at a recent
hearing held by the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources,
which I am privileged to chair.
But given the current administration's support for only a straight 1-
year extension of current law, which is a view shared by the other
body, there are limited prospects for making needed changes to TANF
before the program expires at the end of this month. That's the reason
for the short-term extension before us today.
This 3-month extension will provide an opportunity for Congress,
including the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, to review
TANF alongside other entitlement programs this fall. Important
questions need to be asked, including what is the proper funding level
for these programs and how can they best be focused on engaging low-
income parents in work and other productive activities so more can
support themselves in the long run.
Another thing this additional time will let us do is to take action
to close what some call the ``strip club loophole.'' This refers to an
outright abuse of taxpayer trust permitted under current law when
adults on welfare spend taxpayer funds on liquor, gambling, tattoos, or
even visits to strip clubs. As recent exposes have revealed, too many
welfare recipients access taxpayer funds at cash machines in casinos,
liquor stores, strip clubs, and even on cruise ships.
Some States have already taken action to close this loophole by
blocking access to welfare EBT cards at such establishments. There is
bipartisan legislation to require all States to do that, and doing so
is something of particular interest to our colleague, Senator Coburn. I
share his commitment to getting this done this fall and urge all my
colleagues to support action that we will take to close this loophole.
The legislation before us is designed to provide time for a closer
review of and action on these sorts of issues. Importantly, it does not
add to our deficit since it simply continues current TANF funding for 3
months. I note that TANF is a fixed block grant, which is not adjusted
for inflation.
[[Page H6290]]
I wish we were debating legislation today that extended and actually
improved TANF programs so that they work better; but given the
impediments before us, the bill before the House today offers the best
chance that we will be able to do that in the near future, and I urge
all of my colleagues to support it.
I reserve the balance of my time.
{time} 1310
Mr. DOGGETT. I yield myself 5 minutes.
Mr. Speaker, this is a bipartisan bill, which I fully support, but it
is important to understand what this bill does and what it does not do.
It is important to understand which provisions we agree upon and which
ones we accept as only being better than the alternative of allowing
this important law and all those who count on it to expire next week.
Last week, the Census Bureau reported that more Americans were poor
in 2010 than at any time on record. Regrettably, my home State of Texas
was leading the way with one of the highest poverty rates anywhere in
America.
The Texas Center for Public Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan group,
recently reported that ``The heart of the American Dream is at risk in
Texas.'' For the first time in generations, there are more people
falling out of the middle class than joining its ranks. And what a
struggle it is for those families trying to hold on.
In a neighborhood near downtown San Antonio, Andrew Ramos and his
wife, Nina, are struggling just to keep food on the table for
themselves and their 2-year-old daughter. Andrew lost his job, and Nina
works at a local pizza parlor where she makes about $200 a week. There
are so many families just like the Ramos family--almost one in five in
poverty in Bexar County.
As John Turner at the Capital Area Food Bank concludes: Hunger is a
result of lack of income and of a livable wage. It affects too many of
our neighbors, he says, under the current Texas economic model.
The demands on our food banks, which serve as effective public-
private partnerships, are immense. The Capital Area Food Bank, this
year, is delivering 50 percent more food to poor people than it did 3
years ago.
But I don't really hear anyone facing up to this harsh reality--not
our Governor in Texas, not the President of the United States, and
certainly not the leadership here in the House. In fact, the
Administration has shown little interest and almost no guidance in
reforming this legislation.
Rather than respond to rising deprivation and declining opportunity,
this legislation continues for another 3 months, the Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families Act. This is a program that today
provides direct assistance to only one in every five children living in
Poverty in America. That's the lowest level of poor children receiving
direct assistance since 1965. And of course in Texas it's much worse,
where only one in every 20 poor children receive direct assistance from
TANF.
The bill before us also does not address a program agreed to
originally when the Welfare Reform Act was enacted--a bill that I voted
for to address the particular needs of high poverty States like Texas
and many in the South--called TANF Supplemental Grants. Their name is
really a misnomer because they're not a supplement; they're essential
to the work of States that have higher poverty rates.
Ever since that time of the Welfare Reform Act, Texas and those
States have depended on supplemental TANF. It is not included in
today's legislation, and that means that Texas will lose about $50
million every year that it relies on to work with child care, with
preventing pregnancy, with other issues like school dropouts, programs
that rely on these funds today.
Allowing these grants to expire is in sharp contrast to what happened
in 2001 when Governor Rick Perry wrote to then-Whip Tom DeLay urging
the extension of TANF supplemental grants, saying: ``These grants have
played an important role in helping hardworking men and women in Texas
achieve independence from public assistance. Congress designed the
supplemental grants to address the critical program needs of States.''
Those were words of Governor Rick Perry, who is silent on this matter
today about how we enable more Texans to move from welfare to work.
Mr. Speaker, we cannot allow the funding for TANF to expire next
week, and so I join wholeheartedly with this renewal legislation. But
we also need to move past doing the very least that we can do and start
responding to the mounting challenges that families not just in Texas
but across our country face. TANF has not been adequately responsive to
the increased level of needs during these bad economic times.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 additional minute.
I think also of the words of Claudia Herrington, who works at El Buen
Samaritano, dealing largely with Latino families. She writes: ``This is
not the American Dream I believe in. This is not the American Dream my
father believed in when he emigrated from Cuba here in the 1960s. I
know our country is better than that, regardless of political
affiliation. And I know that investment in our people and their ability
to earn a decent living is a worthwhile policy.''
We need a policy that is more safety net than hole, and I hope
eventually we can work together to achieve that.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's suggestion that this
legislation should be amended to revive the TANF Supplemental Grants
program.
TANF supplemental grants expired in June 2011 in accordance with
legislation Democrats crafted last year that President Obama signed
into law. These payments have now expired and are not payable under
current law. Extending them would mean spending more money to revive
the program, which is beyond the scope of what we're doing today in
maintaining only current TANF programs.
Since TANF supplemental grants were first paid, about $4 billion in
extra TANF programs have been paid out only to a minority of States. At
some point, we have to ask when such supplemental spending should come
to an end. The last Congress, which, again, was led by Democratic
majorities, said the end should come this past June. I respect that
judgment.
The committee is obviously aware of Mr. Doggett's bill to extend
these payments yet again, but we don't know how he would pay for that
since the bill he introduced includes no pay-for. That would mean
increasing our current historic deficits even more.
All States received a share of $5 billion in special welfare funds in
the 2009 stimulus bill. That was on top of almost $17 billion in TANF
block grant payments all States receive each year, including those that
previously collected supplemental grants. The States that collected
supplemental grants received about $913 million of that $5 billion in
one-time funds, or the equivalent of almost three years of supplemental
grant payments.
I appreciate the gentleman's argument for extending these payments by
reviving the now-ended Supplemental Grants program. The legislation
before us does not do that, since it simply extends current law
programs. But I know he and I will continue to have fruitful
discussions and work together about this and other TANF funding and
related issues, and I appreciate his continued input and effort.
With that, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, I would yield myself 15 seconds to say that
under Democratic leadership we extended the supplemental TANF program
that Governor Rick Perry was so proud about in 2001. We extended it
four times. The only reason that it existed in the spring of this year
was because of our extensions. It should be extended once again, and I
hope in the process we can do that.
I would now yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr.
Rangel).
(Mr. RANGEL asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. RANGEL. I come to the floor on this noncontroversial bill and as
a proud member of the Ways and Means Committee to show the Congress and
the country that we are concerned about more than just taxes.
I want to thank Mr. Davis for his leadership in this area and
especially
[[Page H6291]]
my friend Mr. Doggett, who have stuck with the committee in trying to
make certain that we improve the life of those people who are so
vulnerable in our society.
To think that one out of five children in America, the United States
of America, is living in poverty, to recognize that 46 million people,
a family of four makes less than $22,000 is certainly not what has
inspired so many people to get out of poverty and move into the middle
class, which is the heart of America and the heart of our economy.
This bill does just that. It comes to us to look to give authority to
the States to see what works, to make certain that people don't have to
stay on welfare, that they can have a goal in being fully employed. And
it takes a way the image that we have, as a country, that we applaud
people who are being executed, that we applaud those people that don't
have health insurance.
No, America is more than that. And during these hard times, we have
to make certain that we do as the members of this committee, a classic
example is Mr. Doggett, is Mr. Davis, both on a hardworking committee,
but care enough about the people in our country to show that this is
bipartisan. And the people that are poor, the people that are in need,
the people that are without homes and without hope are not Democrats;
they're not Republicans. They are people in our country. And we have an
obligation to show that there is a need for government. There is a need
for caring.
And I am proud to be a member of this committee and a Member of this
Congress to show that's what our country is all about.
{time} 1320
Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Washington State, the former chair of this subcommittee, Mr. McDermott.
Mr. McDERMOTT. I want to say just a few words about this. Obviously,
I support the extension of the TANF. But I think that there is a real
need--and we've been extending it 1 year at a time, 1 year at a time, 1
year at a time for some time--there really is a need to re-look at the
whole concept of what this safety net really needs to be.
We wiped out welfare as we know it, as was the phrase in 1996, at a
time when the economy in this country was going straight up. Anybody
could find a job if they looked for one. And it was very clear that
there were efforts in that bill to push people off the rolls and out
into the work market. Now, it was possible to do that.
Today, however, you have a situation where there are four people that
are looking for every job that's out there. You have many middle class
families who have exhausted 99 weeks of unemployment and have nothing
in this country except food stamps.
Now, it sort of depends on whether or not we're going to have a
middle class in this country when we have a downturn like this and we
decide whether we're going to help the middle class make it. We've got
foreclosures that won't quit. And we've had no proposals out of the
House to do anything about foreclosure prevention.
So you have middle class people who've lost their job, their
unemployment is gone, they are now having their house foreclosed, and
they look to their government for a safety net and find nothing but
food stamps.
In my belief, there is a time when we should help the middle class in
this country be able to go through what may be another year or two,
we're not quite sure how long it will be, but it should not be that
there is no program available to help middle class people who have
fallen on very difficult times.
Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. DOGGETT. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, the House should approve this important bipartisan
legislation today. To fail to approve this modest extension would cause
even more people to suffer with the expiration of these programs next
week.
Mr. Speaker, it may not be in vogue to discuss the problems of poor
people in America today, but we need to hear more about it in this
House. We need to hear more about it in Washington, DC.
Certainly we want to support and encourage the middle class in
America--very, very important--but we need to create more opportunity
to broaden that middle class. For the many people who struggle and hope
that lives will be better for their children and that they will face
less obstacles than their parents have faced, we need to provide that
temporary assistance to needy families. The current program leaves out
too many and forgets too many of those families in their struggle.
The omission of TANF supplemental grants, which we renewed four times
in the last two Congresses, is not being renewed here, which means that
in Texas and in so many high-poverty States, we will not have the
support that Governor Rick Perry once called for. We will have a
broadened gap and a lack of services.
Many of the dollars that we've received in that program in Texas have
gone into child protective services to protect abused and neglected
children. They will no longer have that assistance. I hope in the
course of the legislative process of the renewal of this legislation,
we might eventually get TANF supplemental grants into the bill.
Today we see so many who are losing the opportunity to share in the
American Dream. We have an opportunity to continue at least a minimal
level of support to them. We should do that, but we should commit
ourselves to doing even more.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. DAVIS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2943 simply is a short-term
continuation of Welfare to Work programs that have successfully cut
welfare dependence and promoted work. I urge my colleagues to support
this legislation and to work with us to design a long-term
reauthorization bill that fixes flaws in the system, fixes broken
processes and allows agencies to communicate in a more holistic way as
we address this to eliminate waste of taxpayer dollars and ultimately
to design a long-term reauthorization bill that further promotes work
and independence from welfare.
With that, I yield back the balance of my time.
Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of
H.R. 2943, ``The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Extension
Act,'' which extends the authorization of the Temporary Assistance for
Needy Families (TANF) state block grant program for three months,
through December 31, 2011. Under current law, the program's
authorization is set to expire on October 1, 2011, at the end of FY
2011. H.R. 2943 authorizes ``such sums as may be necessary'' to carry
out the program at the same level as FY 2011 or $16.48 billion
according to CRS and extends funding for the basic block grant, healthy
marriage and responsible fatherhood competitive grants, mandatory child
care grants, and certain other funds.
As Chair of the Congressional Children's Caucus, I am keenly aware
that the youngest among us often suffers the most when programs, like
TANF, are underfunded. We must take a proactive role in protecting
children from lives of abject poverty.
I represent the 18th Congressional district in Houston, Texas. In my
district, more than 190,000 people live below the poverty line.
Programs like TANF are vital to these families. At a time when the
Census Bureau places the number of Americans living in poverty at the
highest rate in over 50 years.
Across our nation the poverty rate has climbed to 14.3 percent in
2009, the highest level since 1994 and is likely to continue to climb.
At this time children are again bearing the brunt, more than one in
five children lived in families with incomes under the official poverty
level which was $22,050 for a family of four in 2009. Similarly more
than one in five children lived in households that did not always have
the resources to purchase food.
In 2008, there were 15.45 million impoverished children in the
nation, 20.7% of America's youth. Further, The Kaiser Family Foundation
estimates that there are currently 5.6 million Texans living in
poverty, 2.2 million of them children, and that 17.4% of households in
the state struggle with food insecurity.
Many people assume that Texas was not hit as hard by the recession as
other states because our unemployment rate is still below the national
average. While our unemployment rate is low compared to the U.S. (8.2
versus 9.8 percent, respectively, in November 2010), it is still nearly
double where it stood in November 2007 (4.4 percent). In fact, Texas'
unemployment rate has been around 8 percent for the last 16 months,
which is extremely high given Texas' recent history. This has resulted
in nearly one in three Texas children living with a parent who does not
have a full-time,
[[Page H6292]]
year-round job, making them particularly vulnerable.
When a household falls into poverty, children are exposed to
increased parental distress, inadequate childcare arrangements, and
poor nutrition. In past recessions, it took many years for employment
and incomes to rebound, and low-income families rebound more slowly
than others.
Public benefits such as TANF help families bridge the gaps in
difficult economic times and are critical in reducing the effects of a
recession. Cutting these supports will hurt child and family wellbeing
and damage the Texas economy by taking money out of the private economy
for critical local businesses such as grocery stores and medical
providers.
Although TANF is not perfect, I believe that is an essential part of
the safety net for very low-income families with children. These
benefits do not provide families with the ability to live a lavish life
style, they do provide a life line to families at a critical time in
their lives, such as periods of unemployment or disability, or when a
newborn joins a family. The goal of TANF is to be a temporary safety
net and to help families in need to regain their balance, when a hard
time causes them to lose their balance.
TANF provides access to paths out of poverty through services such as
job training or counseling for mental health issues. State also uses
the block grants for a wide range of work supports, including child
care and transportation. For these reasons I support H.R. 2943.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Davis) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the bill, H.R. 2943.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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