I 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2991 
To encourage States to engage more TANF recipients in activities leading 
to employment and self-sufficiency, and to simplify State administration 
of TANF work requirements. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 9, 2015 
Mr. RENACCI (for himself, Mr. TIBERI, Mr. RYAN of Ohio, and Mr. KILMER) 
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
Ways and Means, and in addition to the Committee on Education and 
the Workforce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speak-
er, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the ju-
risdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To encourage States to engage more TANF recipients in 
activities leading to employment and self-sufficiency, and 
to simplify State administration of TANF work require-
ments. 
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 ‘‘Preparing More Wel-
fare Recipients for Work Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. IMPROVING COUNTING OF REQUIRED HOURS OF 
PARTICIPATION IN WORK ACTIVITIES. 
(a) ELIMINATION OF DISTINCTION BETWEEN CORE 
AND
NON-CORE
WORK
ACTIVITIES.—Section 
407(c)(1)(A) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 
607(c)(1)(A)) is amended by striking ‘‘, not fewer than 
20 hours per week of which are attributable to an activity 
described in paragraph (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), 
or (12) of subsection (d)’’. 
(b) ALLOWING STATES TO RECEIVE PARTIAL CRED-
IT FOR PARTIAL ENGAGEMENT.—Section 407(c)(1)(B) of 
such Act (42 U.S.C. 607(c)(1)(B)) is amended to read as 
follows: 
‘‘(B) PARTIAL CREDIT FOR FAMILIES PAR-
TICIPATING
FOR
LESS
THAN
THE
MINIMUM 
HOURS REQUIRED.—If a family receiving assist-
ance under the State program funded under 
this part includes an adult or minor child head 
of household receiving the assistance who has 
participated in work activities for an average of 
15 hours (or 10 hours, in the case of a single 
parent specified in paragraph (2)(B)) per week 
during a month, the family shall count as 0.5 
of a family for purposes of calculating the num-
ber described in subsection (b)(1)(B)(i) for the 
month.’’. 
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(c) STATE OPTION TO REQUEST ALTERNATE WORK 
PARTICIPATION RATE CALCULATION.—Section 407(a) of 
such Act (42 U.S.C. 607(a)) is amended by adding at the 
end the following: 
‘‘(3) STATE OPTION TO REQUEST ALTERNATE 
WORK PARTICIPATION RATE CALCULATION.— 
‘‘(A) APPLICATION.—A State may apply to 
the Secretary to apply subparagraph (C) with 
respect to the State. 
‘‘(B) APPROVAL
OF
APPLICATION.—The 
Secretary may approve the application if the 
State demonstrates to the Secretary (in accord-
ance with such guidelines as the Secretary shall 
establish) that the State has systems and mech-
anisms in place to accurately record individual 
hours of participation in work activities that ac-
curately reflects the number of hours of partici-
pation of the individuals required to participate 
in the activities. 
‘‘(C) 
ALTERNATIVE
CALCULATION.—A 
State whose application under this paragraph is 
approved by the Secretary shall be considered 
to be in compliance with this subsection for a 
month in a fiscal year if the sum of the total 
number of hours during which the recipients of 
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assistance under the State program funded 
under this part who are required to be partici-
pating in work activities during the month have 
participated in the activities is not less than the 
percentage equal to the minimum participation 
rate in effect under paragraph (1) for the fiscal 
year, multiplied by the sum of— 
‘‘(i) 30 times the number of the re-
cipients who are so required to participate 
for an average of at least 30 hours per 
week in the month (as determined by the 
State); and 
‘‘(ii) 20 times the number of the re-
cipients who are so required to participate 
for an average of at least 20 hours per 
week in the month (as so determined).’’. 
(d) MODIFICATIONS TO COUNTING JOB SEARCH AS 
WORK.—Section 407(c)(2)(A) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 
607(c)(2)(A)) is amended to read as follows: 
‘‘(A) COUNTING
OF
JOB
SEARCH
AS 
WORK.—After the participation of an individual 
in an activity described in subsection (d)(6) of 
this section of a State program funded under 
this part or any other State program funded 
with qualified State expenditures (as defined in 
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section 409(a)(7)(B)(i)) has been counted for 3 
months as participation in a work activity, par-
ticipation by the individual in such an activity 
shall count towards not more than half of the 
hours of participation in work activities by the 
individual.’’. 
(e) MODIFICATION OF RULE PROVIDING FOR PAR-
TICIPATION
BY REASON
OF SECONDARY SCHOOL AT-
TENDANCE.—Section 407(c)(2)(C) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 
607(c)(2)(C)) is amended— 
(1) in the subparagraph heading, by striking 
‘‘SINGLE TEEN HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD OR MARRIED 
TEEN’’ and inserting ‘‘INDIVIDUAL’’; 
(2) by striking ‘‘is married or a head of house-
hold and’’ and 
(3) by striking ‘‘20 years’’ and inserting ‘‘26 
years’’. 
(f) REQUIREMENT THAT STATE MEET WITH INDI-
VIDUAL INVOLVED IN JOB READINESS ACTIVITIES FOR 
MORE THAN 3 MONTHS.—Section 407(c)(2) of such Act 
(42 U.S.C. 607(c)(2)) is amended by adding at the end 
the following: 
‘‘(E) PERIODIC
MEETING
WITH
INDIVID-
UALS
PARTICIPATING
IN
JOB
READINESS
AS-
SISTANCE.—After an individual has participated 
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for 3 months in an activity described in sub-
section (d)(12) of this section of a State pro-
gram funded under this part or any other State 
program funded with qualified State expendi-
tures (as defined in section 409(a)(7)(B)(i)), 
the individual shall not be considered to be en-
gaged in work by reason of participation in 
such an activity until the State has met with 
the individual, and certified that continued par-
ticipation in such an activity is necessary to 
help prepare the individual for, or support the 
individual in, employment.’’. 
(g) PROVIDING CHILD CARE ASSISTANCE TO COM-
MUNITY SERVICE PARTICIPANT REPLACED BY JOB READ-
INESS ASSISTANCE AS SEPARATE WORK ACTIVITY.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Section 407(d)(12) of such 
Act (42 U.S.C. 607(d)) is amended to read as fol-
lows: 
‘‘(12) job readiness assistance.’’. 
(2) 
CONFORMING
AMENDMENT.—Section 
407(d)(6) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 607(d)) is amend-
ed by striking ‘‘and job readiness assistance’’. 
(h) DOUBLING OF LIMIT ON COUNTING VOCATION 
EDUCATIONAL TRAINING AS WORK.—Section 407(d)(8) 
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of such Act (42 U.S.C. 607(d)(8)) is amended by striking 
‘‘12’’ and inserting ‘‘24’’. 
SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE. 
The amendments made by this Act shall take effect 
on October 1, 2015. 
Æ 
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