Introduction:
Chairman Smith (R-MO), Ranking Member Neal (D-MA), and members of the House Committee on Ways and Means, I appreciate the opportunity to submit testimony on the important topic of reforming the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program to better target families in need, connect people to work, and improve accountability. My name is Matt Weidinger, and I am a Rowe Scholar in Poverty Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Previously I served for over two decades on the staff of the House Ways and Means Committee, including as the committee’s deputy staff director and for many years as the staff director of the Work and Welfare Subcommittee with jurisdiction over the TANF program.
The committee’s hearing reflected the bipartisan support for increasing transparency on the benefits and services TANF supports. Current law (section 409(a)(1) of the Social Security Act) requires the reduction of federal block grant funding equal to an amount found by audit to have been used in violation of TANF rules, and it adds a penalty equal to 5 percent of a state’s annual block grant if such misspending was intentional.[i] The committee is right to review recent misspending of TANF funds, as those failures undermine public trust that TANF is achieving its important purpose of assisting needy families.
The hearing also spotlighted concern about the proper state shares of the federal block grant. I offer background on that question below, along with background on the current flawed practice of paying TANF benefits to ineligible noncitizen parents.