State and local governments that receive grants from HHS must follow the uniform administrative requirements set forth in federal regulations.When procuring property and services, these regulations require that states follow the same policies and procedures they use for procurements supported with nonfederal funds. Under HHS’s regulations, states must also ensure that contracts include any clauses required by federal statutes and executive orders. Grantees other than states and subgrantees, such as local governments, rely on their own procurement procedures, provided that they conform to applicable federal laws and the standards identified in the regulations, including standards of conduct, requirements of full and open competition in contracting, procedures for different types of procurements, and bid protest procedures to handle and resolve disputes relating to their procurements. Grantees and subgrantees must maintain a contract administration system that ensures that contractors perform in accordance with the terms, conditions, and specifications of their contracts. The procurement of contracts typically follows a process that comprises several phases, including bid solicitation and contract award processes. The bid solicitation process will begin with the development of a work plan by the contracting agency that outlines the objectives contractors will be expected to achieve and the manner in which they will be expected to achieve them. The state or locality will then issue a request-for-proposals to inform potential bidders of the government’s interest in obtaining contractors for the work specified. A request-for-proposals is a publicly advertised document that outlines information necessary to enable prospective contractors to prepare proposals properly. After these activities are completed, the contract award process begins. Once proposals have been submitted, they are evaluated to assess their relative merit. Several key criteria are almost always considered in evaluating proposals, including price/cost, staffing, experience, and technical and/or other resources. The environment for administering social services such as TANF has been affected by changes to the nation’s workforce system. Through the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998 (P.L. 105-220), the Congress sought to replace the fragmented training and employment system that existed under the previous workforce system. WIA requires state and local entities that carry out specified federal programs to participate in local one-stop centers—local centers offering job placement assistance for workers and opportunities for employers to find workers—by making employment and training-related services available. While TANF is not a mandatory partner at one-stop centers, some states are using one-stop centers to serve TANF recipients. WIA called for the development of workforce investment boards to oversee WIA implementation at the state and local levels. WIA listed the types of members that should participate on the workforce boards, such as representatives of business, education, labor, and other segments of the workforce investment community, but did not specify a minimum or maximum number of members. Local workforce boards can contract for services delivered through one-stop centers. PRWORA broadened both the types of TANF services that could be contracted out and the types of organizations that could serve as TANF contractors. The act authorized states to contract out the administration and provision of TANF services, including determining program eligibility. Under the prior AFDC program, the determination of program eligibility could not be contracted out to nongovernmental agencies. In addition, under the PRWORA provision commonly referred to as charitable choice, states are authorized to contract with faith-based organizations to provide TANF services on the same basis as any other nongovernmental provider without impairing the religious character of such organizations. Such changes in the welfare environment have affected the involvement of for-profit organizations in TANF contracting. Prior to PRWORA, contracting in the welfare arena was mainly for direct service delivery such as job training, job search instruction, and child care provision. While some for-profit companies provided services, service providers were mostly nonprofit. Large for-profit companies were mainly involved as contractors that designed automated data systems. In the broader area of social services, large for-profits were also involved in providing various services for child support enforcement. Now that government agencies can contract out their entire welfare systems under PRWORA, there has been an increase in the extent to which large for-profit companies have sought out welfare contracts, in some cases on a large scale that includes determining eligibility and providing employment and social services. Federal and state funds are used to serve TANF recipients. For federal fiscal years 1997 to 2002, states received federal TANF block grants totaling $16.5 billion annually. With respect to state funding, PRWORA includes a maintenance-of-effort provision, which requires states to provide 75 to 80 percent of their historic level of funding. States that meet federally mandated minimum participation rates must provide at least 75 percent of their historic level of funding, and states that do not meet these rates must provide at least 80 percent. The federally mandated participation rates specify the percentages of states’ TANF caseloads that must be participating in work or work-related activities each year. HHS oversees states’ TANF programs. In accordance with PRWORA and federal regulations, HHS has broad responsibility to oversee the proper state expenditure of TANF funds and the achievement of related program goals. While TANF legislation prohibits HHS from regulating states in areas that it is not legislatively authorized to regulate, it must still oversee state compliance with program requirements, such as mandated work participation rates and other program requirements. Nearly all states and the District of Columbia contract with nongovernmental entities for the provision of TANF-funded services at the state level, local level, or both levels of government. In 2001, state and local governments spent more than $1.5 billion on contracts with nongovernmental entities, or at least 13 percent of all federal TANF and state maintenance-of-effort expenditures (excluding those for cash assistance). The majority of these contracts are with nonprofit organizations. Although TANF contractors provide a wide array of services, the most commonly contracted services reported by our survey respondents include employment and training services, job placement services, and support services to promote job entry or retention. In addition, eligibility determination for cash assistance under TANF or other TANF-funded services has been contracted out in one or more locations in some states. Most state TANF contracting agencies pay contractors a fixed overall price or reimburse them for their costs rather than base contract payments on achieving program objectives for TANF recipients. Contracting for TANF-funded services occurs in the District of Columbia and every state except South Dakota. However, the level of government at which contracting occurs varies, which complicates efforts to provide comprehensive information on TANF-funded contracts. Contracting occurs only at the state level in 24 states, only at the local level in 5 states, at both levels in the remaining 20 states, and in the District of Columbia. Moreover, contracting at the local level encompasses contracting by agencies such as county departments of social or human services as well as workforce development boards whose jurisdiction may include several counties. Our national survey of TANF contracting provides comprehensive information on contracting at the state level but incomplete and nonrepresentative information on local contracting. In 2001, state and local governments expended at least $1.5 billion in TANF funds for contracted services. With respect to state-level contracting, contracts with nonprofit organizations accounted for 87 percent of TANF funds while contracts with for-profit organizations accounted for 13 percent of funds (see fig. 1). Seventy-three percent of state-level contracts are with nonprofit organizations and 27 percent are with for-profit organizations. Under PRWORA’s charitable choice provision, some states have established initiatives to promote the use of faith-based organizations. Contracts with faith-based organizations constitute a smaller proportion of all contracted TANF funds than contracts with secular nonprofit organizations and for-profit organizations. As shown in figure 1, contracts with faith-based organizations account for 8 percent of TANF funds spent by state governments on contracts with nongovernmental entities nationally. In several states, large percentages of the funds contracted by states and localities that were identified by our national survey are in contracts with for-profit organizations. As shown in table 1, at least half of the contracted funds in 8 states are with for-profit organizations. Moreover, in 11 states, more than 15 percent of all TANF-contracted funds identified by our survey went to faith-based organizations. The proportion of TANF funds expended for contracted services with nongovernmental entities varies considerably by state. Nationally, at least 13 percent of TANF funds expended for services other than cash assistance have been contracted out. As shown in table 1, the proportion of funds contracted out in 10 states in 2001 exceeded 20 percent of their fiscal year 2000 TANF fund expenditures (excluding the portion of expenditures for cash assistance). Idaho, Mississippi, New Jersey, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia expended more than 40 percent of their TANF funds on contracted services. On the other hand, Iowa, Kansas, North Carolina, New Mexico, and Oregon spent the smallest proportion (2 percent or less of their TANF funds) on contracts with nongovernmental entities. Several large for-profit organizations and nonprofit organizations have large TANF contracts in multiple states. Our national survey of TANF contracting asked state and local respondents to identify the names of the contractors with the three largest dollar contracts in their jurisdictions. Four for-profit organizations—Curtis & Associates, Inc.; Maximus; America Works; and Affiliated Computer Services, Inc.—have contracts with the highest dollar values in two or more states. Among this group, Curtis & Associates, Inc., had the TANF contracts with the highest dollar value relative to other contractors in their respective locations.