I
107TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 3113
To reauthorize and improve the program of block grants to States for
temporary assistance for needy families.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
OCTOBER 12, 2001
Mrs. MINK of Hawaii (for herself, Mr. BONIOR, Ms. CARSON of Indiana, Mrs.
CLAYTON, Mr. CLAY, Mr. EVANS, Mr. FARR of California, Mr. FILNER,
Mr. GUTIERREZ, Mr. HASTINGS of Florida, Mr. HILLIARD, Mr. HIN-
CHEY, Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas, Mr. KUCINICH, Ms. LEE,
Mr. LEWIS of Georgia, Ms. LOFGREN, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Ms. MCKIN-
NEY, Mrs. MEEK of Florida, Mr. NADLER, Ms. NORTON, Mr. OWENS,
Mr. PAYNE, Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Ms. SOLIS, Mr.
STARK, Ms. WATERS, Ms. WOOLSEY, and Ms. BROWN of Florida) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways
and Means
A BILL
To reauthorize and improve the program of block grants
to States for temporary assistance for needy families.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘TANF Reauthorization
Act of 2001’’.
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. Findings.
Sec. 4. Amendment of Social Security Act.
TITLE I—GENERAL PROVISIONS
Sec. 101. Purposes.
Sec. 102. State plan.
Sec. 103. Funding.
Sec. 104. Use of funds.
TITLE II—WORK REQUIREMENTS
Sec. 201. Reduced work requirement for parents of school-age children who
cannot find adequate child care.
Sec. 202. Conforming the number of weeks to the unemployment insurance
compensation standard.
Sec. 203. Revision of work activities.
Sec. 204. Penalties against individuals for unjustified refusal to work; addi-
tional justifications.
Sec. 205. Elimination of miscellaneous provisions.
TITLE III—PROHIBITIONS; REQUIREMENTS
Sec. 301. Replacement of requirement to sanction individual for noncooperation
in establishing paternity or obtaining child support with prohi-
bition on requiring such cooperation.
Sec. 302. Prohibition on requiring assignment of support rights to the State;
return of support rights assigned to the State.
Sec. 303. Elimination of sanction against teenage parents not attending high
school or other equivalent training program.
Sec. 304. Requirements relating to disregard of child support.
Sec. 305. Elimination of sanction against teenage parents not living in adult-
supervised settings.
Sec. 306. Protection for children.
Sec. 307. 5-year time limit.
Sec. 308. Requirement to provide notice of rights of recipients, and train pro-
gram personnel in carrying out program consistent with the
rights.
Sec. 309. Requirement to provide information to individuals who are, or are at
risk of being, sanctioned.
Sec. 310. Ban on counting income, scholarship, or gift received by dependent
minors.
Sec. 311. Ban on diversion of potential applicants for assistance.
Sec. 312. Prohibition on requiring recipients to respond to surveys conducted
to obtain information for quarterly reports.
Sec. 313. Confidentiality of program information.
Sec. 314. Nondiscrimination.
Sec. 315. Requirement to provide opportunity to appeal adverse decision.
Sec. 316. Clarification of penalty for failure to comply with individual responsi-
bility plan.
Sec. 317. Applicability of civil rights laws.
Sec. 318. Elimination of special rules relating to treatment of aliens.
TITLE IV—PENALTIES
Sec. 401. Increase in penalty for failure to submit required report.
Sec. 402. Replacement of penalty against State for failure to comply with pa-
ternity establishment and child support enforcement require-
ments with penalty for requiring cooperation in establishing pa-
ternity or obtaining child support (including assigning support
rights to the State).
Sec. 403. Extension of maintenance of effort requirement.
Sec. 404. Penalty for failure of State to comply with child support disregard
requirements.
Sec. 405. Penalty for penalizing birth of child.
Sec. 406. Penalty for failure to notify recipients of rights, or train program
personnel in respecting rights of recipients.
Sec. 407. Penalty for failure to provide information to individuals who are, or
are at risk of being, sanctioned.
Sec. 408. Penalty for counting income, scholarship, or gift received by depend-
ent minor.
Sec. 409. Penalty for diverting potential applicant for assistance.
Sec. 410. Penalty for requiring recipient to respond to survey conducted to ob-
tain information for quarterly report.
Sec. 411. Penalty for unauthorized disclosure of information provided by recipi-
ent.
Sec. 412. Penalty for discrimination.
Sec. 413. Penalty for failure to provide opportunity to appeal adverse decision.
Sec. 414. Penalty for failure to comply with minimum benefit rules.
Sec. 415. Penalty for failure to provide individual child care entitlement.
Sec. 416. Failure to submit report on welfare access and outcomes.
Sec. 417. Elimination of reasonable cause exception.
Sec. 418. Modification of availability of corrective compliance plan option.
Sec. 419. Repeal of ban on assistance for persons convicted of a drug felony.
TITLE V—STUDIES AND REPORTS
Sec. 501. Additional information to be included in quarterly State reports.
Sec. 502. Elimination from secretarial report to the Congress of information on
out-of-wedlock pregnancies.
Sec. 503. Access to welfare; welfare outcomes.
Sec. 504. Assessment of regional economies to identify higher entry level wage
opportunities in industries experiencing labor shortages.
Sec. 505. Research, evaluations, and national studies.
Sec. 506. Study by the Census Bureau.
TITLE VI—WAIVERS
Sec. 601. Waivers.
TITLE VII—REPEAL OF LIMITATION ON FEDERAL AUTHORITY
Sec. 701. Repeal of limitation on Federal authority.
TITLE VIII—MINIMUM BENEFIT RULES
Sec. 801. Minimum benefit rules.
TITLE IX—CHILD CARE
Sec. 901. Individual entitlement to child care.
TITLE X—DEFINITION OF POVERTY LINE
Sec. 1001. Definition of poverty line.
TITLE XI—SERVICE PROVIDERS
Sec. 1101. Protection for beneficiaries.
TITLE XII—EFFECTIVE DATE
Sec. 1201. Effective date.
SEC. 3. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) Welfare reform has reduced the welfare
caseload but has failed to move families out of pov-
erty. More than 40 percent of former welfare recipi-
ents continued to live below the poverty line in 1999.
Employed former recipients earn a median hourly
wage of $7.15. Because challenges to economic op-
portunity and well-being are not adequately ad-
dressed by current welfare programs, existing law
must be changed to ensure that welfare policy effec-
tively promotes the reduction of poverty.
(2) Between 1995 and 1999, a strong economy
reduced poverty by about 2 percent. Reductions in
Government transfer payments during this period,
however, eliminated almost all of the antipoverty ef-
fectiveness of economic growth. Prior to welfare re-
form, between 1993 and 1995, Government transfer
payments had produced the opposite effect, reducing
poverty among American families.
(3) About 1⁄3 of people who have left welfare
say they have had to cut the size of meals or skip
meals because they did not have enough food in the
house.
(4) Over 40 percent of welfare leavers report
that they have had trouble paying housing and util-
ity bills since leaving welfare.
(5) Since welfare reform was enacted in 1996,
and despite a strong economy, there have been sharp
increases in the rates at which single mothers with
children have had to rely on food pantries and home-
less shelters.
(6) An estimated 1⁄3 to 1⁄2 of all families leaving
welfare for work do not receive medical assistance,
food stamps, or child care to which they are entitled.
(7) Only 1,500,000 of the 9,900,000 children
who are eligible for child care subsidies under their
States’ eligibility guidelines receive child care assist-
ance.
(8) Between 1997 and 1999, over 500,000 fam-
ilies were sanctioned off welfare and these families
have been more likely to experience poverty than
have other families leaving welfare. On a variety of
measures, families who have been sanctioned off wel-
fare tend to fare worse than other leavers.
(9) States in which African Americans make up
a higher proportion of recipients are statistically
more likely to adopt full-family sanctions. African
American recipients are statistically more likely than
white recipients to participate in a TANF program
that employs full-family sanctions. African-American
families have, in fact, been sanctioned more fre-
quently than their white counterparts.
(10) States in which African Americans make
up a higher proportion of recipients are statistically
more likely to adopt family cap policies. African
American recipients are statistically more likely than
white recipients to participate in a TANF program
that employs a family cap policy.
(11) States in which African Americans make
up a higher proportion of recipients are statistically
more likely to adopt time limits shorter than the
Federal Government requires. Approximately 2⁄3 of
all families that will exhaust their allowable time on
welfare are families of color.
(12) Overall, 78 percent of children with immi-
grant parents are themselves born in the United
States and are therefore eligible for services if poor.
Nearly 1⁄4 of all children of immigrants live in poor
families and 23 percent of all poor children in the
United States are either first- or second-generation
immigrants. Immigrants whose children are eligible
for public benefits often don’t know about the serv-
ices, are afraid to access them, or are incorrectly
turned away.
(13) About 25 percent of former welfare recipi-
ents have no paid employment and have either no
partner or a partner who is unemployed.
(14) Under welfare reform, single mothers have
been forced to work at unsafe and hazardous job
sites and to be subject to sexual harassment and ra-
cial discrimination.
(15) Most single mothers who leave welfare for
work do not earn enough in wages to lift their fami-
lies out of poverty, even several years after leaving
welfare. 55 percent remain poor 1 year after leaving
welfare; 49 percent 3 years after and 42 percent 5
years after. Only about 1⁄3 of all leavers have in-
comes above 150 percent of the poverty line years
after going off welfare.
(16) Adolescent children of single mothers who
have left welfare for work have school performance
rates below those of other low-income children. Early
studies of families in welfare-to-work programs in
Florida, Minnesota, and Canada have found unex-
pected evidence that their adolescent children have
lower academic achievement and more behavioral
problems than the children of other welfare house-
holds. The researchers hypothesized that parents in
the programs might have less time and energy to
monitor their adolescents’ behavior once they were
employed; that under the stress of working, they
might adopt harsher parenting styles; or that the
adolescents’ assuming more responsibilities at home
when parents got jobs was creating too great a bur-
den.
(17) Under welfare reform, when families lost
income regardless of the reason, children were more
likely to experience bad outcomes such as increased
school suspensions, behavior and mental health prob-
lems including symptoms of depression, an increase
in the number of children removed from their moth-
er’s care, increased enrollment in special classes for
behavioral or emotional problems, and health prob-
lems such as increased trips to the emergency room.
In programs where both employment and income
were increased, the impact on children was more
positive.
(18) Most single mothers on welfare who are el-
igible for the exemption from cooperating in estab-
lishing paternity are not made aware of this option.
(19) 35 percent of low-income families reported
mental health problems according to a 1999 study.
Similar rates of mental health problems have been
found among welfare recipients. Among California
welfare program participants, more than 1⁄3 had at
least 1 diagnosable mental health problem in the
previous 12 months, and about 20 percent had 2 or
more. Nationally, between 70 and 90 percent of
working-age adults with serious mental health prob-
lems are unemployed. According to a 2001 study,
major depression significantly decreases the likeli-
hood that a woman receiving welfare will be em-
ployed and the presence of 1 or more of 4 psy-
chiatric disorders increases the likelihood of receiv-
ing cash assistance by 32 percent.
(20) Over half of women receiving welfare have
been victims of domestic violence as adults. Accord-
ing to several studies, a quarter to a third of welfare
recipients report having been abused within the last
year. Abusive partners often interfere with women’s
attempts to work or to obtain education.
SEC. 4. AMENDMENT OF SOCIAL SECURITY ACT.
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 provi-
sion, the amendment or repeal shall be considered to be
made to a section or other provision of the Social Security
Act.
TITLE I—GENERAL PROVISIONS
SEC. 101. PURPOSES.
Section 401(a)(1) (42 U.S.C. 601(a)(1)) is amended
to read as follows:
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The purpose of this part is
to end child and family poverty by—
‘‘(A) supporting caregivers so that children
may be cared for in their own homes;
‘‘(B) promoting education, training, work
supports, and access to jobs that pay a living
wage;
‘‘(C) assuring access to Medicaid, Food
Stamps, child care, and such other assistance
for which the family is eligible;
‘‘(D) providing access to services to ad-
dress barriers to leaving poverty, including
mental health, disability, substance abuse, do-
mestic violence, and sexual assault; and
‘‘(E) reducing poverty of families with chil-
dren.’’.
SEC. 102. STATE PLAN.
(a) IN
GENERAL.—Section 402(a) (42 U.S.C.
602(a)) is amended—
(1) in paragraph (1)—
(A) in subparagraph (A)—
(i) by striking clause (ii) and redesig-
nating clauses (iii) and (iv) as clauses (ii)
and (iii), respectively; and
(ii) by striking clauses (v) and (vi);
and
(B) in subparagraph (B)—
(i) in clause (iii), by inserting ‘‘and
will notify recipients of assistance under
the program of the rights of individuals
under all laws applicable to program activi-
ties’’ before the period;
(ii) by striking clauses (i) and (iv) and
redesignating clauses (ii) and (iii) as
clauses (i) and (ii), respectively;
(2) in paragraph (7), by striking subparagraph
(B) and inserting the following:
‘‘(B) DOMESTIC OR SEXUAL VIOLENCE DE-
FINED.—In this title, the term ‘domestic or sex-
ual violence’ has the same meaning as ‘battered
or subject to extreme cruelty’ in section
402(a)(7)(C)(ii).’’; and
(3) by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(7) CERTIFICATIONS
REGARDING
DOMESTIC
AND
SEXUAL
VIOLENCE, MENTAL
ILLNESS, DIS-
ABILITY, AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE.—
‘‘(A) STANDARDS
AND
PROCEDURES.—A
certification by the chief executive officer of the
State that the State has established and is en-
forcing standards and procedures to ensure that
the State will do the following:
‘‘(i) ADDRESS RECIPIENT’S BARRIERS
TO LEAVING POVERTY.—Address the needs
of a recipient who has a mental health
problem, disability, or substance abuse ad-
diction, or who is dealing with domestic or
sexual violence, including how the State
will, at the time of application, at a recipi-
ent’s request, and before imposing any
sanction or penalty for noncompliance—
‘‘(I) have trained caseworkers
screen, and, at the option of the re-
cipient, qualified professionals assess
and identify individuals who are deal-
ing with a mental health problem, dis-
ability, substance abuse addiction, or
domestic or sexual violence;
‘‘(II) in the case of an individual
who is so identified, at the option of
the individual, refer the individual and
affected children or other close family
members for appropriate treatment,
counseling, vocational rehabilitation,
job training, and other services;
‘‘(III) coordinate, contract, or
hire appropriate licensed qualified
professionals, including licensed quali-
fied mental health service providers,
licensed qualified physicians or med-
ical service providers, licensed quali-
fied substance abuse professionals, do-
mestic violence coalitions, sexual as-
sault coalitions, or victim services or-
ganizations;
‘‘(IV) ensure the strict confiden-
tiality of such information; and
‘‘(V) pursuant to a determination
of good cause, waive, without time
limit, any State or Federal program
requirement for so long as necessary
in 
every 
case 
in 
which 
the
requirement—
‘‘(aa) makes it more difficult
for the individual to manage his
or her mental health problem,
disability, substance abuse addic-
tion, or domestic or sexual vio-
lence situation;
‘‘(bb) unfairly penalizes the
individual; or
‘‘(cc) makes the individual
unsafe.
‘‘(ii) USE
OF
QUALIFIED
PROFES-
SIONALS.—Enter into contracts with or
employ qualified professionals for the pro-
vision of services in each of the fields of
mental health, substance abuse, disability,
and domestic or sexual violence, and that
the contracts will require that, in the case
of an individual who has multiple such bar-
riers, the qualified professionals assigned
to the case will collaborate to provide the
individual with integrated, comprehensive
services.
‘‘(B) DEFINITIONS.—In this paragraph:
‘‘(i) 
DOMESTIC
VIOLENCE
COALI-
TION.—The term ‘domestic violence coali-
tion’ means a nonprofit, nongovernmental
membership organization that—
‘‘(I) consists of the entities car-
rying out a majority of the domestic
violence programs carried out in a
State;
‘‘(II) collaborates and coordinates
activities with Federal, State, and
local entities to further the purposes
of domestic violence intervention and
prevention; and
‘‘(III) among other activities,
provides training and technical assist-
ance to entities carrying out domestic
violence programs in a State, terri-
tory, political subdivision, or area
under Federal authority.
‘‘(ii) SEXUAL ASSAULT COALITION.—
The term ‘sexual assault coalition’ means a
nonprofit, nongovernmental membership
organization that—