experience a 50 percent higher divorce rate. 
Children in single-parent households and cohab-
iting households are at much higher risk of 
child abuse than children in intact married and 
stepparent families. 
(F) Children who live apart from their bio-
logical 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, biologi-
cal 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 fam-
ily. In 2001, in married-couple families, the 
child poverty rate was 8 percent, and in house-
holds headed by a single mother, the poverty 
rate was 39.3 percent. 
(G) Since the enactment of the Personal 
Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconcili-
ation 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 num-
ber 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 ac-
knowledgement 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 Op-
portunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 gave States 
great flexibility in the use of Federal funds to de-
velop innovative programs to help families leave wel-
fare and begin employment and to encourage the 
formation of 2-parent families. 
(A) Total Federal and State TANF ex-
penditures 
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 attrib-
utable to significant new investments in sup-
portive 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 par-
ticipation (including employment, community 
service, and work experience) among welfare re-
cipients, as well as an unprecedented reduction 
in the caseload because recipients have left wel-
fare 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 in-
creased 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 fami-
lies. Many States use TANF, child sup-
port, 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 wel-
fare to work, as well as in promoting healthy mar-
riage 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 serv-
ices’’ after ‘‘assistance’’; 
(3) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘parents on 
government benefits’’ and inserting ‘‘families on gov-
ernment 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 fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(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 reduc-
tion pursuant to section 409 or 412(a)(1)) 
bears to the total amount required to be paid