I 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2968 

To provide for the conduct of demonstration projects to provide coordinated 

case management services for TANF recipients. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 8, 2015 

Mr. YOUNG of Indiana introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Ways and Means 

A BILL 

To provide for the conduct of demonstration projects to 

provide coordinated case management services for TANF 

recipients. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Coordinating Assist5 ance for TANF Recipients Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. COORDINATED CASE MANAGEMENT DEMONSTRA7 TION PROJECTS. 

8 Section 403 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 

9 603) is amended by adding at the end the following: 


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1 ‘‘(c) COORDINATED CASE MANAGEMENT DEM2 ONSTRATION PROJECTS.— 

3 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall make 

4 grants to States to conduct demonstration projects 

5 designed to implement and evaluate strategies to 

6 provide coordinated case management to help indi7 viduals receiving assistance under a State program 

8 funded under this part or any other State program 

9 funded with qualified State expenditures (as defined 

10 in section 409(a)(7)(B)(i)) increase their employ11 ment and self-sufficiency. 

12 ‘‘(2) APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS.—The Sec13 retary shall require each State that applies for a 

14 grant under this paragraph to do the following: 

15 ‘‘(A) Describe how, using the funds pro16 vided under this paragraph, the State will de17 velop an individual responsibility plan in accord18 ance with section 408(b) for each recipient re19 ferred to in paragraph (1) of this subsection. 

20 ‘‘(B) Describe how the State will coordi21 nate the development of this plan with other 

22 programs and agencies providing benefits and 

23 services to the individual to help the recipient 

24 increase the employment and self-sufficiency of 

25 the recipient. 


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1 ‘‘(C) Describe how the State will coordi2 nate the delivery of the benefits and services to 

3 the recipient (which may include the use of 

4 home visiting models). 

5 ‘‘(D) Describe how the State will meet 

6 with the recipient at least monthly to review the 

7 employment status of the recipient and status 

8 of the participation of the recipient in other ac9 tivities, the benefits and services the recipient is 

10 receiving, and the progress of the recipient to11 ward meeting the goals specified in the indi12 vidual responsibility plan of the recipient. 

13 ‘‘(3) USE OF FUNDS.—A State to which a grant 

14 is made under this subsection may use the grant for 

15 the following purposes: 

16 ‘‘(A) To support coordinated case man17 agers in completing the activities specified in 

18 paragraph (2). 

19 ‘‘(B) To provide short-term transitional 

20 benefits and services to individuals who, due to 

21 increased employment or earnings, may face 

22 disincentives to increasing work or earnings due 

23 to the phase-out or loss of certain benefits. 

24 ‘‘(C) To ensure that recipients of services 

25 under the demonstration project have a choice 


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1 between 2 or more coordinated case manage2 ment service providers. 

3 ‘‘(D) To improve coordination between pro4 grams serving recipients who are part of the 

5 demonstration project. 

6 ‘‘(E) To improve coordination between in7 formation technology and other systems to de8 liver better benefits or services to the recipient, 

9 except that not more than 10 percent of the 

10 grant amount may be used for this purpose. 

11 ‘‘(4) EVALUATION.—The Secretary, in consulta12 tion with each State conducting a demonstration 

13 project under this subsection, shall conduct a high14 quality evaluation of the demonstration project in 

15 accordance with the following: 

16 ‘‘(A) EVALUATOR QUALIFICATIONS.—The 

17 Secretary may not enter into a contract with an 

18 evaluator unless the evaluator has demonstrated 

19 experience in conducting rigorous evaluations of 

20 program effectiveness including, where available 

21 and appropriate, well-implemented randomized 

22 controlled trials. 

23 ‘‘(B) METHODOLOGIES TO BE USED.—The 

24 evaluation of a demonstration project shall use 

25 experimental designs using random assignment 


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1 or other reliable, evidence-based research meth2 odologies that allow for the strongest possible 

3 causal inferences when random assignment is 

4 not feasible. 

5 ‘‘(C) PUBLIC DISCLOSURE.—The Secretary 

6 shall publish the results of the evaluation on the 

7 website of the Department of Health and 

8 Human Services in a location easily accessible 

9 by the public. 

10 ‘‘(D) LIMITATION ON COST OF EVALUA11 TIONS.—For evaluations under this paragraph, 

12 the Secretary may not obligate more than 20 

13 percent of the funds reserved under paragraph 

14 (6) for each fiscal year. 

15 ‘‘(5) RECOMMENDATIONS TO CONGRESS.—The 

16 Secretary shall submit recommendations to the Con17 gress on ways to improve case management and bet18 ter coordinate benefits and services across programs. 

19 ‘‘(6) FUNDING.—Of the amounts made avail20 able to carry out subsection (b) for fiscal year 2016 

21 and each succeeding fiscal year, the Secretary shall 

22 reserve $300,000,000 to carry out this subsection. 

23 ‘‘(7) AVAILABILITY OF FUNDS.—Funds pro24 vided to a State under this subsection for a fiscal 


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1 year shall be expended by the State in the fiscal year 

2 or in the succeeding fiscal year.’’. 

3 SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE. 

4 The amendment made by this Act shall take effect 

5 on October 1, 2015. 

Æ 


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