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. 
SEC. 4. FINDINGS. 
The Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) The Temporary Assistance for Needy Fami-
lies (TANF) Program established by the Personal 
Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation 
Act of 1996 (Public Law 104–193) has succeeded in 
moving families from welfare to work and reducing 
child poverty. 
(A) There has been a dramatic increase in 
the employment of current and former welfare 
recipients. The percentage of working recipients 
reached an all-time high in fiscal year 1999 and 
continued steady in fiscal years 2000 and 2001. 
In fiscal year 2001, 33 percent of adult recipi-
ents were working, compared to less than 7 per-
cent in fiscal year 1992, and 11 percent in fis-
cal year 1996. All States met the overall par-
ticipation rate standard in fiscal year 2001, as 
did the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
(B) Earnings for welfare recipients re-
maining on the rolls have also increased signifi-
cantly, as have earnings for female-headed 
households. The increases have been particu-
larly large for the bottom 2 income quintiles, 
that is, those women who are most likely to be 
former or present welfare recipients. 
(C) Welfare dependency has plummeted. 
As of June 2002, 2,025,000 families and 
5,008,000 individuals were receiving assistance. 
Accordingly, the number of families in the wel-
fare caseload and the number of individuals re-
ceiving cash assistance declined 54 percent and 
58 percent, respectively, since the enactment of 
TANF. These declines have persisted even as 
unemployment rates have increased: unemploy-
ment rates nationwide rose 50 percent, from 
3.9 percent in September 2000 to 6 percent in 
November 2002, while welfare caseloads contin-
ued to decline. 
(D) The child poverty rate continued to de-
cline between 1996 and 2001, falling 20 percent 
from 20.5 to 16.3 percent. The 2001 child pov-
erty rate remains at the lowest level since 1979. 
Child poverty rates for African-American and 
Hispanic children have also fallen dramatically 
during the past 6 years. African-American child
poverty is at the lowest rate on record and His-
panic child poverty is at the lowest level re-
ported in over 20 years. 
(E) Despite these gains, States have had 
mixed success in fully engaging welfare recipi-
ents in work activities. While all States have 
met the overall work participation rates re-
quired by law, in 2001, in an average month, 
only just over 1⁄3 of all families with an adult 
participated in work activities that were count-
able toward the State’s participation rate. Five 
jurisdictions failed to meet the more rigorous 2-
parent work requirements, and 19 jurisdictions 
(States and territories) are not subject to the 2-
parent requirements, most because they moved 
their 2-parent cases to separate State programs 
where they are not subject to a penalty for fail-
ing the 2-parent rates. 
(2) As a Nation, we have made substantial 
progress in reducing teen pregnancies and births, 
slowing increases in nonmarital childbearing, and 
improving child support collections and paternity es-
tablishment. 
(A) The teen birth rate has fallen continu-
ously since 1991, down a dramatic 22 percent