Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act Amendments of 2003

Bill: 108-s-367
Sponsor: Sen. Rockefeller, John D., IV [D-WV]
Introduced: 2003-02-12 in the Senate
Policy area: Social Welfare
Subjects: Administrative procedure
Adoption
Age discrimination
Agriculture and Food
Aid to dependent children
Aliens
American Samoa
Appropriations
Arts, Culture, Religion
Block grants
Books
Business and social problems
Cash welfare block grants
Child support
Child welfare
Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues
Collection of accounts
College costs
Commerce
Commuting
Congress
Congressional investigations
Congressional reporting requirements
Crime and Law Enforcement
Day care
Demography
Department of Health and Human Services
Disabled
Discrimination against the disabled
Earned income tax credit
Earnings
Economic conditions
Economics and Public Finance
Education
Electronic government information
Employee training
Employment of the disabled
Employment subsidies
Energy
Energy assistance for the poor
English language
Evaluation research (Social action programs)
Families
Family violence
Federal aid to Indians
Federal aid to child health services
Federal aid to education
Food stamps
Foster home care
Government Operations and Politics
Government lending
Government paperwork
Government publicity
Government trust funds
Grants-in-aid
Group homes
Guam
Health
Health insurance
Higher education
Housing and Community Development
Housing subsidies
Illiteracy
Immigrant health
Immigrants
Immigration
Income
Income tax
Indian children
Internet
Labor and Employment
Law
Learning disabilities
Low-income housing
Marriage
Maternal health services
Medicaid
Medically uninsured
Minorities
Nonmarital births
Nonprofit organizations
Parent and child
Poor children
Poverty
Pregnant women
Public-private partnerships
Puerto Rico
Rural conditions
Science, Technology, Communications
Social work
State employees
State laws
Supplemental security income program
Surveys
Teenage pregnancy
Transportation and Public Works
Travel costs
Unemployment
Victims of crimes
Virgin Islands
Vocational and technical education
Web sites
Welfare eligibility
Welfare waivers
Welfare work participation
Women
Working poor

Summary:
action_date: 2003-02-12
text: Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act Amendments of 2003 - Amends part A (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) (TANF) of title IV of the Social Security Act (SSA) to: (1) reauthorize State family assistance grants and provide for their annual adjustment; (2) revise contingency fund requirements; (3) provide for bonuses for States that reduce child poverty; (4) repeal authority for Federal loans for State welfare programs; (5) replace the caseload reduction credit with employment credit to reward States in which families leave welfare for work; (6) increase guaranteed funding for child care; (7) authorize States to establish a parents as scholars program; (8) modify requirements with respect to vocational educational training and other preemployment activities; (9) eliminate the separate work participation rate for two parent families; (10) prohibit State imposition of stricter eligibility criteria for two-parent families; (11) establish grants to States for programs encouraging two-parent families and reducing teenage pregnancies; (12) require a child well-being plan as part of the individual responsibility plan; (13) exclude victims of domestic violence from the 20 percent limitation on hardship exception; (14) provide for continuation of certain pre-TANF waivers for States that elect to continue to operate under such a waiver; (15) authorize States to cover legal immigrants under SSA titles XIX (Medicaid) and XXI (State Children's Health Insurance) (SCHIP); (16) establish grants for second chance homes; and (17) authorize transfer of TANF funds to carry out an access to jobs or a reverse commute project.
Restores SCHIP funding for the social services block grant.
Directs the Secretaries of Health and Human Services and of Labor to award grants for projects related to promoting business linkages and providing for transitional jobs programs.
Amends SSA title IV part E (Foster Care and Adoption Assistance) to authorize States to align foster care and adoption assistance eligibility with TANF eligibility.
Amends the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 to exclude State TANF assistance from the five year waiting period for legal immigrants.
Amends SSA title XIX (Medicaid) to revise and extend the transitional medical assistance (TMA) program.
Prohibits use of TANF funds to displace public employees.

Legislative actions:
action_date: 2003-02-12
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
action_date: 2003-02-12
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S2353-2355)
action_date: 2003-02-12
text: Introduced in Senate