Compassion and Personal Responsibility Act

Bill: 108-s-5
Sponsor: Sen. Talent, Jim [R-MO]
Introduced: 2003-02-14 in the Senate
Policy area: Social Welfare
Subjects: Academic performance
Adoption
Agriculture and Food
Aid to dependent children
Appropriations
Armed Forces and National Security
Auditing
Blind
Block grants
California
Caregivers
Cash welfare block grants
Census
Child abuse
Child development
Child health
Child support
Child welfare
Church and social problems
Collection of accounts
Commerce
Computer matching
Congress
Congressional investigations
Congressional reporting requirements
Consumer credit
Counseling
Crime and Law Enforcement
Crime prevention
Day care
Directories
Disability evaluation
Disabled
Drug abuse
Drug abuse treatment
Drugs and youth
Economics and Public Finance
Education
Elementary and secondary education
Employment subsidies
Evaluation research (Social action programs)
Families
Fathers
Federal aid to Indians
Federal aid to child health services
Federal-state relations
Finance and Financial Sector
Food relief
Food stamps
Foster home care
Government Operations and Politics
Government contractors
Government lending
Government paperwork
Health
Identification devices
Income tax
Indian children
Interest
Job hunting
Juvenile delinquency
Labor and Employment
Marriage
Married people
Maternal health services
Medicaid
Mentoring
Minorities
Nonmarital births
Nonprofit organizations
Performance measurement
Premarital sex
Preschool education
Public-private partnerships
Recruiting of employees
Religion
School-age child care
Science, Technology, Communications
Sex education
Sexual abstinence
Social security numbers
Social surveys
Suicide
Supplemental security income program
Tax refunds
Taxation
Teenage pregnancy
Territories (U.S.)
Unemployment
Unemployment insurance
Unmarried couples
User charges
Veterans' disability compensation
Wages
Welfare eligibility
Welfare work participation
Wisconsin
Women
Youth

Summary:
action_date: 2003-02-14
text: Compassion and Personal Responsibility Act - Amends title IV part A (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) (TANF)) of the Social Security Act (SSA) to: (1) extend through FY 2008 family assistance grants to eligible States; (2) replace the current bonuses to reward States for a decrease in illegitimacy ratio with competitive Healthy Marriage Promotion grants; (3) replace bonuses to reward high performance States with bonuses to States to reward employment achievement; (4) repeal authority for Federal loans to State welfare programs; and (5) revise work participation requirements for State grants.
Promotion and Support of Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Marriage Act of 2003 - Amends the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 to authorize Federal grants to public and nonprofit community entities (including religious organizations and Indian tribal organizations) for projects and activities designed to test the effectiveness of various approaches to promoting responsible parenting through a fatherhood program.
Caring for Children Act of 2003 - Amends the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 to extend the authorization of appropriations through FY 2008 and to revise requirements for State programs for child care services.
Amends SSA title IV part D (Child Support and Establishment of Paternity) to revise child support collection requirements to: (1) prescribe guidelines for Federal matching funds for limited pass through of child support payments to families receiving TANF; (2) decrease the amount of child support arrearage that will trigger passport denial; (3) provide for use of the tax refund intercept program to collect past-due child support on behalf of children who are not minors; and (4) limit garnishment of compensation paid to veterans for Service-connected disabilities in order to enforce child support obligations.
Eliminates the limitation placed upon the number of: (1) States that may be granted waivers to conduct demonstration projects on the same topic; and (2) waivers that may be granted to a single State for demonstration projects.
Amends SSA title XVI (Supplemental Security Income) (SSI) to require the Commissioner of Social Security to review State agency blindness and disability determinations before any action is taken to implement them in order to identify those most likely to be incorrect.
Grants the States authority to require participation in an individual rehabilitation plan or risk being deemed ineligible for supplemental security income.
Prescribes requirements for State demonstration projects to coordinate multiple public assistance and workforce development programs for working individuals and families.
Amends the Food Stamp Act of 1977 to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a State food assistance block grant demonstration project.
Amends SSA title V (Maternal and Child Health Services) and title XIX (Medicaid) to extend: (1) the duration of appropriations for an abstinence education program; and (2) the Medicaid transitional medical assistance program.
Amends the Food Stamp Act of 1977 to declare that nothing prevents a State from operating separate eligibility verification systems or imposing work requirements as conditions of participation in the Food Stamp Program.

Legislative actions:
action_date: 2004-03-31
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S3440)
action_date: 2003-02-14
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
action_date: 2003-02-14
text: Introduced in Senate