Temporary Assistance for Needy Families: State Maintenance of Effort Requirements and Trends
Published: 2012-05-17T00:00:00

Fast Facts:

Highlights:
section_title: Why GAO Did This Study
paragraphs: The $16.5 billion TANF block grant, created in 1996, is one of the key federal funding streams targeted to assist low-income families. While the block grant provides states with a fixed amount of federal dollars annually, it also includes state MOE requirements, which require states to maintain a significant portion of their own historic financial commitment to welfare-related programs. Over the last 15 years, this federal-state partnership has seen multiple program and fiscal changes, including a dramatic drop in the number of families receiving monthly cash assistance, as well as two economic recessions. To provide information for its potential extension or reauthorization, this testimony draws primarily on previous GAO work to focus on (1) the key features of the state MOE requirements and (2) how the role of state MOE spending has changed over time. To address these issues, GAO relied on its prior work on TANF block grant and state MOE spending issued between 2001 and 2010, including the May 2010 report examining how state MOE spending affects state TANF programs work participation rates. To develop the spending-related findings in this body of work, GAO reviewed relevant federal laws, regulations, and guidance, state TANF data reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and related financial data from selected states. GAO also interviewed relevant officials from HHS and selected states.
section_title: What GAO Found
paragraphs: The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grants maintenance of effort (MOE) provisions include specified state spending levels and general requirements on the use of funds. For example, these provisions generally require that each state spend at least 80 percent (75 percent if the state meets certain performance standards) of the amount it spent on welfare and related programs in fiscal year 1994, before TANF was created. If a state does not meet its MOE requirements in any fiscal year, the federal government will reduce dollar-for-dollar the states federal TANF grant in the following year. In order to count state spending as MOE, funds must be spent on benefits and services to families with children that have incomes and resources below certain state-defined limits. Such benefits and services must generally further one of TANFs purposes, which broadly focus on providing financial assistance to needy families; promoting job preparation, work, and marriage; reducing out-of-wedlock births; and encouraging the formation of two-parent families. Within these broad goals, states have significant flexibility to design programs and spend their funds to meet families needs.
Total MOE spending reported by states remained relatively stable around the required minimum spending level of $11 billion through fiscal year 2005, and then increased to about $4 billion higher than this minimum in fiscal years 2009 and 2010. Several reasons likely accounted for these increases, including states reliance on MOE spending to help them meet TANF work participation rates. Work participation rates identify the proportion of families receiving monthly cash assistance that participate in allowable work activities for a specified number of hours each week. Federal law generally requires that at least 50 percent of families meet the work requirements; however, most states have engaged less than 50 percent of families in required activities in each year since TANF was created, according to HHS data. Various policy and funding options in federal law and regulations, including credit for state MOE expenditures that exceed required spending levels, have allowed most states to meet the rate requirements even with smaller percentages of families participating. States generally began relying on MOE spending to get credit toward meeting TANF work participation rates in fiscal year 2007 because of statutory changes to the rate requirements enacted in 2006. For example, for fiscal year 2009, the most recent data available, 16 of the 45 states that met the TANF work participation rate would not have done so without the credit they received for excess state MOE spending.
The expanded role of MOE in state TANF programs highlights the importance of having reasonable assurance that MOE spending reflects the intended commitment to low-income families and efficient use of federal funds. GAOs previous work makes clear that MOE provisions are often difficult to administer and oversee, but can be important tools for helping ensure that federal spending achieves its intended effect. This work also points out that with appropriate attention to design, implementation, and monitoring issues, such provisions are one way to help strike a balance between the potentially conflicting objectives of increasing state and local flexibility while attaining certain national objectives.

section_title: Letter
paragraphs: I am pleased to have the opportunity to participate in today’s discussion  of state spending related to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families  (TANF) block grant, which is one of the key federal funding streams  targeted to assist low-income families. State spending represents about  40 percent of the $406 billion in total TANF and related state spending for  the past 15 years since TANF was created in 1996. As you know, the  federal government significantly changed federal welfare policy in 1996  when it created TANF, a $16.5 billion annual block grant provided to  states to operate their own welfare programs within federal guidelines.  While the block grant provides states with a fixed amount of federal  dollars annually, it also includes state maintenance-of-effort (MOE)  requirements, which require states to maintain a significant portion of their  historic financial commitment to welfare-related programs. At the same  time, TANF gives states the authority and flexibility to make key decisions  about how to design programs and allocate federal and state funds to  assist low-income families. Over the last 15 years, this funding  partnership has undergone multiple program and fiscal changes,  including a dramatic drop in the number of families receiving monthly  cash assistance benefits, as well as two economic recessions.
My remarks today are based primarily on our past work on state MOE  spending, including our May 2010 report examining how state MOE  spending affects state TANF programs’ work participation rates. I will  focus on (1) the key features of the state MOE requirements and (2) how  the role of state MOE spending has changed over time. To develop our  MOE-related findings for our May 2010 report on work participation, we  conducted our work from August 2009 to May 2010. In addition, in July  2011, we obtained more recent data on MOE and work participation from  the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and we  reported on those data in our September 2011 testimony before this  subcommittee. For today’s statement we also drew on our prior reports  on TANF block grant spending issued between 2001 and 2006 as well as  earlier reports on grant design and accountability generally. To develop  findings for all of these reports, we used a variety of approaches,  including interviewing officials from the HHS and selected states and  reviewing state TANF data reported to HHS; related financial data from  selected states; relevant federal laws, regulations, and guidance; and  literature reviews. For more details on our methodologies, see the related  reports cited throughout. We determined that these data were sufficiently  reliable for the purposes of this testimony. We conducted our work in  accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.  Those standards required that we plan and perform the audit to obtain  sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our  findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that  the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and  conclusions based on our audit objectives.
subsections: section_title: Background
paragraphs: The TANF block grant was created by the Personal Responsibility and  Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) and was  designed to give states the flexibility to provide both traditional welfare  cash assistance benefits as well as a variety of other benefits and  services to meet the needs of low-income families and children. TANF  has four broad goals: (1) provide assistance to needy families so that  children may be cared for in their own homes or homes of relatives; (2)  end dependence of needy parents on government benefits by promoting  job preparation, work, and marriage; (3) prevent and reduce out-of- wedlock pregnancies; and (4) encourage two-parent families. Within  these goals, states have responsibility for designing, implementing, and  administering their welfare programs to comply with federal guidelines, as  defined by federal law and HHS.
In creating TANF, the federal government significantly changed its role in  financing welfare programs in states. PRWORA ended low-income  families’ entitlement to cash assistance by replacing the Aid to Families  with Dependent Children (AFDC) program— for which the federal grant  amount was based on the amount of state spending—with the TANF  block grant, a $16.5 billion per year fixed federal funding stream to states.  PRWORA coupled the block grant with an MOE provision, which requires  states to maintain a significant portion of their own historic financial  commitment to their welfare programs as a condition of receiving their full  federal TANF allotments. Importantly, with the fixed federal funding  stream, states assume greater fiscal risks in the event of a recession or  increased program costs. However, in acknowledgment of these risks,  PRWORA also created a TANF Contingency Fund that states could  access in times of economic distress. Similarly, during the recent  economic recession, the federal government created a $5 billion  Emergency Contingency Fund for state TANF programs through the  American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, available in fiscal  years 2009 and 2010.
The most recent data available, for fiscal year 2010, show that the federal  government and states spent almost $36 billion  on benefits and services  meeting one or more of the TANF goals. In that year, states provided, on  average, about 1.9 million families per month with ongoing cash  assistance, including about 800,000 families in which the children alone  received benefits. This represents a significant drop from the more than  3 million families receiving cash assistance when states implemented  TANF in fiscal year 1997. In addition, states provide a broad range of  services to other families in need not included in the welfare caseload  data. The total number of families assisted is not known, as we have  noted in our previous work. These allowable services under TANF can  generally include any spending reasonably deemed to meet one or more  of the four broad goals of TANF, and can include one-time cash  payments, work and training activities, work supports such as child care  and transportation, efforts to promote two-parent families or marriage,  and child welfare services, among others. When TANF began, cash  assistance represented the largest spending category (73 percent in fiscal  year 1997). In contrast, cash assistance spending in fiscal year 2010  accounted for 30 percent of total TANF spending.
Reducing dependence on government benefits through job preparation  and employment is a key goal of TANF, and PRWORA identified the work  participation rate as one of the federal measures of state TANF programs’  performance. This rate is generally calculated as the proportion of work- eligible TANF cash assistance recipients engaged in allowable work  activities. for ensuring that generally at least 50 percent of all families receiving  TANF cash assistance benefits participate in one or more of the allowable  work activities for a specified number of hours each week. TANF  provisions include other features to help emphasize the importance of  work and the temporary nature of assistance, such as 60-month time  limits on the receipt of aid for many families.
42 U.S.C. § 607. The 12 work activities are: unsubsidized employment, subsidized  private sector employment, subsidized public sector employment, work experience (if  sufficient private sector employment is not available), on-the-job training, job search and  job readiness assistance, community service programs, vocational educational training,  job skills training directly related to employment, education directly related to employment  (for recipients who have not received a high school diploma or certificate of high school  equivalency), satisfactory attendance at secondary school or in a course of study leading  to a certificate of general equivalence (for recipients who have not completed secondary  school or received such a certificate), and the provision of child care services to an  individual who is participating in a community service program. 42 U.S.C. § 607(d).
section_title: MOE Provisions Include Specified State Spending Levels with Some Flexibility
paragraphs: The preamble to the final rule issued by HHS in 1999 noted that the MOE  cost-sharing arrangement reflected Congress’ recognition that state  financial participation is essential for the success of welfare reform. The  preamble to this final rule also noted that Congress wanted states to be  active partners in the welfare reform process. These requirements are  an important element of TANF—if a state fails to meet its MOE  requirement for any fiscal year, HHS is required by law to reduce dollar- for-dollar the amount of a state’s basic TANF grant for the following fiscal  year.
Maintenance of effort requirements are sometimes found in federal grant  programs to prevent states from substituting federal for state dollars.  Such provisions can help ensure that federal block grant dollars are used  for the broad program area intended by the Congress, in this case the  four broad TANF purposes. Without such provisions, federal funds  ostensibly provided for these broad areas could, in effect, be transformed  into general fiscal relief for the states, as states could use some or all of  their federal block grants to replace their own money invested in the  program area. To the extent that this occurs, the ultimate impact of these  federal dollars would be to increase state spending in other programs,  reduce taxes, or some combination of both. A maintenance of effort  requirement brings its own challenges—it can be complex to monitor and  may lock states into meeting minimum spending levels that may no longer  be warranted given changing conditions.
Under TANF, while states have significant flexibility in how to spend their  own money, several requirements guide the use of these state funds,  including how much, for whom, and for what.
subsections: section_title: How Much?
paragraphs: Each state’s amount of MOE is generally based on fiscal year 1994 state  spending for a specific set of programs. The 1996 welfare reform law  consolidated and replaced programs under which the amount of federal  spending was often based on state spending levels, and considerable  state dollars contributed to these pre-TANF programs. Figure 1 shows the  federal programs with related state spending that were included in  establishing the fixed annual amount of the TANF block grant and state  maintenance-of-effort level for each state.
The required percentages of these previous state spending levels vary  under different conditions:
80 percent—To receive its federal TANF funds, a state must generally  spend state funds in an amount equal to at least 80 percent of the  amount it spent on welfare and related programs in fiscal year 1994.
75 percent—If a state meets its minimum work participation rate  requirements, then it generally need expend only 75 percent of the  amount it spent in fiscal year 1994.
100 percent—To receive contingency funds, a state must expend 100  percent of that fiscal year 1994 amount.
In addition to its own spending, a state may count toward its MOE certain  in-kind or cash expenditures by third parties, such as nonprofit  organizations, as long as the expenditures meet other MOE  requirements, including those related to eligible families and allowable  activities, discussed below. In addition, an agreement must exist between the state and the third party allowing the state to count the  expenditures toward its MOE.
section_title: For Whom?
paragraphs: Generally, to count toward a state’s MOE, expenditures must be for  “eligible families,” that is, families who:  include a child living with his or her custodial parent or other adult  caretaker relative (or a pregnant woman); and meet the financial criteria, such as income and resources limits,  established by a state for the particular service or assistance as  described in its TANF plan. Each state is required to prepare and  provide a biennial TANF plan describing its programs to HHS.
section_title: For What?
paragraphs: Generally, expenditures for eligible families in these areas may count  toward MOE: educational activities to increase self-sufficiency, job training and work  (except for activities or services that a state makes generally available  to its residents without cost and without regard to their income);  cash assistance;  child care assistance; other activities considered in keeping with a TANF purpose.  certain administrative costs; and  These expenditures may be made on behalf of families in a state’s cash  welfare program or for other eligible families through other state programs  or initiatives. However, state-funded benefits, services, and activities  that were not a part of the pre-reform programs generally may count as  MOE only to the extent that they exceed the fiscal year 1995 level of  expenditures in the programs. This is referred to as the “new spending”  test. For example, if a state has currently spent its own funds on eligible  families on an allowable activity, such as a refundable earned income tax  credit, it may count toward its MOE only the current amount that exceeds  that program’s expenditures in fiscal year 1995.
section_title: MOE Spending Has Increased Significantly, But the Extent to Which It Represents Increased Service Levels Is Unclear
subsections: section_title: MOE Levels Have Increased in Recent Years
paragraphs: State MOE levels remained stable for many years and then increased  more recently for several reasons. As shown in figure 2, until fiscal year  2006, MOE levels remained relatively stable, hovering around the 80  percent required minimum or the reduced rate of 75 percent for states  that met their work participation rates. From fiscal years 2006 through  2009, they increased each year.
In a 2001 report, we examined issues related to the new federal-state  fiscal partnership under TANF, noting several issues related to TANF and  MOE spending rules. We found at that time that the MOE requirement,  in many cases, limited the extent to which states used their federal funds  to replace state funds—an intended role for MOE.situation in which many state officials said they were spending more than   It also led to a  might be expected in the face of the large caseload drop in the earliest  years of TANF.
However, states have additional flexibility in making spending decisions.  While states must meet MOE requirements, federal TANF funds may be  “saved for a rainy day,” providing states additional flexibility in their  budget decisions. they drew down to meet increasing needs in the recent economic  downturn. Moreover, states have flexibility to provide a wide variety of  services—as long as they are in keeping with the four broad purposes of  TANF—to those on the cash welfare rolls and to other eligible families.
42 U.S.C. § 604(e). Each year, a state may in effect reserve some of its federal TANF  funds to help it meet increased needs and costs in later years. A state’s unspent funds  can “accumulate” as a type of “rainy day fund” for its future use. Since TANF was created  in 1996, states have been permitted to spend prior year TANF block grant funds on  assistance—a category that includes cash benefits and supportive services for families  receiving these benefits. However, the Recovery Act increased states’ flexibility to spend  prior year TANF block grant funds on all TANF-allowable benefits and services. by almost $2 billion, and much of the increase in expenditures was in  areas that had temporarily been broadened.
Many states claimed additional MOE to help them meet the work  participation rates, as discussed in the next section.
section_title: MOE Spending Helped Some States Meet Work Rates
paragraphs: In recent years, some states have used their MOE spending to help them  meet TANF work participation rates. Generally, states are held  accountable for ensuring that at least 50 percent of all families receiving  TANF cash assistance and considered work-eligible participate in one or  more of the federally defined work activities for a specified number of  hours each week. However, most states have not engaged that many  recipients in work activities on an annual basis. For example, in fiscal  year 2009, the most recent year for which data are available, less than 50  percent of TANF cash assistance families participated in work activities  for the specified number of hours each week in 44 states, according to  HHS. However, various policy and funding options in federal law and  regulations allowed most of these states to meet their work participation  rates. Factors that influenced states’ abilities to meet the work  participation rates included not only the number of families receiving  TANF cash assistance who participated in work activities, but also  decreases in the number of families receiving TANF cash assistance, and  state MOE spending beyond what is required, for example.
Since TANF was created, the factor that states have commonly relied on  to help them meet their required work participation rates is the caseload  reduction credit. Specifically, decreases in the numbers of families  receiving TANF cash assistance over a specified period are accounted for  in each state’s caseload reduction credit, which essentially lowers the  states’ required work participation rate from 50 percent. For example, if  a state’s caseload decreases by 20 percent during the relevant time  period, the state receives a caseload reduction credit equal to 20  percentage points, which results in the state work participation rate  requirement being adjusted from 50 to 30 percent. In each year since  TANF was created, many states have used caseload declines to help  them lower the required work participation rates. For example, in fiscal  year 2009, 38 of the 45 states that met their required work participation  rates for all TANF families did so in part because of their caseload  decreases (see fig. 3).
However, in recent years, the Congress updated the base year for  assessing the caseload reduction credit, and as a result, some states also began to rely on state MOE expenditures to increase their caseload  reduction credit, which lowers their required work participation rates.  Under federal regulations, if states spend in excess of their required MOE  amount, they are allowed to correspondingly increase their caseload  reduction credits. By doing so, a state reduces its required work  participation rate. In fiscal year 2009, 32 of the 45 states that met their  required work participation rates for all TANF families claimed excess  state MOE spending toward their caseload reduction credits. Sixteen of  these states would not have met their rates without claiming these  expenditures (see fig. 3). Among the states that needed to rely on excess  state MOE spending to meet their work participation rates, most relied on  these expenditures to add between 1 and 20 percentage points to their  caseload reduction credits (see fig. 4).
MOE is now playing an expanded role in TANF programs, as many  states’ excess MOE spending has helped them meet work participation  rates. While one state had used MOE expenditures toward its caseload  reduction credit before fiscal year 2007, over half of the states (27) relied  on these expenditures to increase their credits and help them meet their  required work participation rates in one or more years between fiscal  years 2007 and 2009.
States may be making programmatic and budgetary decisions to use  excess MOE to help them avoid penalties for failure to meet participation  rates and possibly losing funds. In our previous work, states have cited  concerns about difficulties in engaging a sufficient number of cash  recipients in required activities for the required number of hours for  several reasons, including limits on the types of activities that count,  limited resources for developing and providing appropriate work activities,  a lack of jobs particularly during tough economic times, and the  characteristics of some cash assistance recipients that make it difficult for  them to engage in countable work activities.
However, this greater emphasis on the use of MOE increases the  importance of understanding whether effective accountability measures  are in place to ensure MOE funds are in keeping with requirements. In  our 2001 report, some states expressed concerns that this MOE provision  could become difficult to enforce. In doing that work, we spoke to many  auditors who were in the midst of developing audit plans to address  compliance with the new spending test. Several told us that developing  these plans was relatively straightforward: the auditor should simply be  able to establish a baseline for all the MOE expenditures the state was  using and then trace those programs back to 1995 and certify that  spending used for MOE was indeed new spending. However, we also  noted that these plans could become more complex if states frequently  changed the expenditures they were counting from one year to the next  (i.e., changed the programs for which they needed baselines). In one  state at that time, we were told that all expenditure data were archived  after 5 years, and that auditing the annual certification would be  especially difficult and time consuming if the state changes the programs  it uses to meet its MOE requirement from year to year. We expect that  several factors, such as changes in what MOE expenditures states may  count, growth in some particular spending areas, as well as the growth in  MOE spending overall may have greatly increased the complexities  involved in tracking MOE.
HHS provided information related to  In its final rule published in 1999,its plans for monitoring state MOE and noted that states recognize that  they are ultimately accountable for their expenditure claims. HHS stated  that states are audited annually or biennially and compliance with the  basic MOE provisions is part of the audit. HHS added that it would use  the results of the audits, together with its own analysis of state-provided  data—required state quarterly expenditure reports and annual descriptive  reports on MOE activities—to assess states’ compliance. It also said it  might undertake additional state reviews based on complaints that arise  or requests from the Congress.
We have not reviewed existing efforts to monitor MOE and cannot  comment on their effectiveness. However, the extent to which states have  relied on these expenditures to help them meet work participation rates  as well as meeting MOE generally highlights the importance of having  reasonable assurances that current oversight is working. If MOE claims  do not actually reflect maintaining or increasing service levels, low- income families and children may not be getting the assistance they need  in the current environment and federal funds may not be used in the most  efficient manner.
section_title: Observations
paragraphs: MOE provisions are important but not without implementation and  oversight challenges. Based on our previous work on federal grant design  as well as more recent work on some MOE provisions under the  Recovery Act, it is clear that such provisions are important mechanisms  for helping ensure that federal spending achieves its intended effect. With  TANF, what is at stake are billions of federal and state dollars that  together represent a federal-state partnership to help needy families  provide for their children and take steps toward economic independence.  The work also points to administrative, fiscal, and accountability  challenges in implementing MOE provisions, both from federal and state  perspectives. While MOE provisions may be imperfect tools, with  appropriate attention to design, implementation, and monitoring issues,  such provisions are one way to help strike a balance between the  potentially conflicting objectives of increasing state and local flexibility  while attaining certain national objectives, including efficient use of federal  resources in today’s fiscal environment.
We provided drafts of the reports we drew on for this testimony to HHS  for its review, and copies of the agency’s written responses can be found  in the appendixes of the relevant reports. We also provided HHS a draft  of this testimony, and officials provided technical comments that we  incorporated as appropriate.
Chairman Davis, Ranking Member Doggett, and Members of the  Subcommittee, this concludes my statement. I would be pleased to  respond to any questions you may have.
section_title: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments
paragraphs: For questions about this statement, please contact Kay E. Brown at (202)  512-7215 or brownke@gao.gov. Contact points for our Offices of  Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found on the last page  of this statement. Individuals who made key contributions to this  statement include James Bennett, Robert Campbell, Rachel Frisk, Alex  Galuten, Gale Harris, Tom James, Jean McSween, Ronni Schwartz, and  Michelle Loutoo Wilson.
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