Title: Accelerating Individuals into the Workforce Act
Policy area: Social Welfare

Summary:
Accelerating Individuals into the Workforce Act
This bill requires the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) to make grants to states for demonstration projects that provide wage subsidies to enable low-income individuals to enter and retain employment.
States may use grant funds to subsidize an individual's wages for up to 12 months. The subsidy may be up to 50% of an individual's wages. Individuals are eligible for subsidized wages if they (1) are recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or similar state assistance or a noncustodial parent of a child receiving such assistance, and (2) are unemployed when the subsidy begins or have an income below 200% of the poverty line.
States must ensure that participants in subsidized job programs do not displace current workers.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4571 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4571

   To provide for the conduct of demonstration projects to test the 
      effectiveness of subsidized employment for TANF recipients.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 27, 2019

Mrs. Miller (for herself, Mrs. Walorski, and Mr. Estes) 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 test the 
      effectiveness of subsidized employment for TANF recipients.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Accelerating Individuals into the 
Workforce Act''.

SEC. 2. DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS TO SUPPORT SUBSIDIZED EMPLOYMENT FOR 
              TANF RECIPIENTS.

    Section 403 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 603) is amended 
by adding at the end the following:
    ``(c) Subsidized Employment Demonstration Projects.--
            ``(1) In general.--The Secretary shall make grants to 
        States to conduct demonstration projects designed to implement 
        and evaluate strategies that provide wage subsidies to enable 
        low-income individuals to enter into and retain employment.
            ``(2) Application requirements.--The Secretary shall 
        require each State that applies for a grant under this 
        subsection to do the following:
                    ``(A) Describe how wage subsidies will be provided 
                (such as whether paid directly to the employer or the 
                individual), the duration of the subsidies, the amount 
                of the subsidies, the structure of the subsidies, and 
                how employers will be recruited to participate in the 
                subsidized employment program.
                    ``(B) Describe how the State expects those 
                participating in subsidized employment to be able to 
                retain employment after the subsidy ends.
                    ``(C) Describe how the State will coordinate 
                subsidized employment funded under this subsection with 
                other efforts to help low-income individuals enter work 
                as conducted by the State.
            ``(3) Use of funds.--
                    ``(A) In general.--A State to which a grant is made 
                under this subsection may use the grant to subsidize 
                the wages of an eligible recipient for a period not 
                exceeding 12 months, and only to the extent that the 
                total of the funds paid under this project and any 
                other Federal funds so used with respect to the 
                recipient does not exceed 50 percent of the amount of 
                the wages received by the recipient during the period.
                    ``(B) Eligible recipient.--For purposes of 
                subparagraph (A), an eligible recipient is an adult 
                recipient of assistance under the State program funded 
                under this part or any other State program funded with 
                qualified State expenditures (as defined in section 
                409(a)(7)(B)(i)) (or a noncustodial parent of a minor 
                child who is receiving such assistance)--
                            ``(i) who, at the time the subsidy begins, 
                        is unemployed; or
                            ``(ii) whose income, at that time, is less 
                        than 200 percent of the poverty line (as 
                        defined by the Office of Management and Budget, 
                        and revised annually in accordance with section 
                        673(2) of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act 
                        of 1981 (42 U.S.C. 9902(2))).
            ``(4) Nondisplacement.--A State to which a grant is made 
        under this subsection shall ensure that no participant in a 
        subsidized employment program funded in whole or in part under 
        this subsection is employed or assigned to a job under the 
        program when any other individual is on layoff from the same or 
        any substantially equivalent job.
            ``(5) Reports.--As a condition of receiving funds under 
        this subsection for a fiscal year, a State shall submit to the 
        Secretary, within 12 months after the end of the fiscal year, a 
        report that--
                    ``(A) specifies, for each month of the fiscal year, 
                the number of individuals whose employment is 
                subsidized with these funds;
                    ``(B) describes the structure of the State 
                activities to use the funds to subsidize employment, 
                including the amount and duration of the subsidies 
                provided;
                    ``(C) specifies the percentage of eligible 
                recipients who received a subsidy who are in 
                unsubsidized employment during the 2nd quarter after 
                the subsidy ended;
                    ``(D) specifies the percentage of eligible 
                recipients who received a subsidy who are in 
                unsubsidized employment during the 4th quarter after 
                the subsidy ended; and
                    ``(E) specifies the median earnings of eligible 
                recipients who received a subsidy who are in 
                unsubsidized employment during the 2nd quarter after 
                the subsidy ended.
            ``(6) Evaluation.--The Secretary, in consultation with each 
        State conducting a demonstration project, shall conduct a high-
        quality impact evaluation to determine the effects of the 
        demonstration project, including on individual skill levels and 
        earnings and employment retention, and may reserve funds made 
        available under this subsection to conduct the evaluation in 
        accordance with the following:
                    ``(A) Evaluator qualifications.--The Secretary may 
                not enter into a contract with an evaluator unless the 
                evaluator has demonstrated experience in conducting 
                rigorous evaluations of program effectiveness 
                including, where available and appropriate, well-
                implemented randomized controlled trials.
                    ``(B) Methodologies to be used.--The evaluation of 
                a demonstration project shall use experimental designs 
                using random assignment or other reliable, evidence-
                based research methodologies that allow for the 
                strongest possible causal inferences when random 
                assignment is not feasible.
                    ``(C) Recommendations.--The evaluation of a 
                demonstration project shall include recommendations 
                relating to updated goals for the advancement and 
                improvement of the program and a description of 
                specific challenges encountered in the program and 
                recommended solutions.
                    ``(D) Public disclosure.--The Secretary shall 
                publish the results of the evaluation on the website of 
                the Department of Health and Human Services in a 
                location easily accessible by the public.
            ``(7) Funding.--Of the amounts made available to carry out 
        subsection (b) for fiscal year 2021, the Secretary shall 
        reserve $100,000,000 to carry out this subsection.
            ``(8) Availability of funds.--Funds provided to a State 
        under this subsection in a fiscal year shall be expended by the 
        State in the fiscal year or in the succeeding 2 fiscal 
        years.''.

SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    The amendment made by this Act shall take effect on October 1, 
2020.
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