Selected provisions of federal law explicitly prohibit specific categories of drug offenders from receiving certain federal benefits for specified periods. Table 1 identifies key provisions of federal law that provide for denial of benefits specifically to drug offenders and the corresponding benefits that may or must be denied to drug offenders. Except for federal licenses, procurement contracts, and grants under Denial of Federal Benefits Program, the benefits that may or must be denied are benefits that are generally provided to low-income individuals and families. TANF, food stamps, federally assisted housing, and Pell Grants are low-income programs. The Denial of Federal Benefits Program, established under Section 5301 of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, as amended, provides that federal and state court judges may deny all or some of certain specified federal benefits to individuals convicted of drug trafficking or drug possession offenses involving controlled substances. Additional details on each of the programs may be found in appendices II, III, IV, and V. The provisions differ on key elements. For example, they establish different classes of drug offenders that may or must be denied benefits, and they provide for different periods that drug offenders are rendered ineligible to receive a benefit and whether or not benefits can be restored. Some of the provisions allow that drug offenders may become eligible for benefits upon completing a recognized drug treatment program. Provisions established by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), as amended, which govern the TANF and food stamp programs, provide that benefits must be denied to persons convicted of a state or federal felony drug offense that involves the possession, use, or distribution of a controlled substance that occurred after August 22, 1996, the effective date of these provisions. Students become ineligible to receive federal postsecondary education benefits upon a conviction of either a misdemeanor or a felony controlled substances offense. Loss of federally assisted housing benefits can occur if individuals, relatives in their household, or guests under a tenant’s control engage in drug-related criminal activity, regardless of whether the activity resulted in a conviction. Local public housing authorities, which administer federally assisted housing benefits, have discretion in determining the behaviors that could lead to loss of certain federal housing benefits. Under the Denial of Federal Benefits Program, judges in federal and state courts may deny a range of federal licenses, contracts, and grants to persons convicted of controlled substances drug trafficking and drug possession offenses. The period of ineligibility to receive benefits varies. Under PRWORA, as amended, unless states enact laws that exempt convicted drug offenders in their state from the federal ban, TANF and food stamp benefits are forfeited for life for those convicted of disqualifying drug offenses. State laws may also result in a shorter period of denial of these benefits. Students are disqualified from receiving federal postsecondary education benefits for varying periods depending on the number and type of disqualifying drug offense convictions. A first conviction for possession of a controlled substance, for example, results in a 1-year period of ineligibility, while a first conviction for sale of controlled substance results in a 2-year period of ineligibility. Upon subsequent convictions, the period of ineligibility can extend indefinitely. Federally assisted housing benefits may also be denied for varying periods of time, depending upon the number and types of drug-related criminal activities. The minimum loss of benefit is 3 years in certain circumstances, and the maximum is a lifetime ban. For example, for persons convicted of certain methamphetamine offenses, the ban is mandatory and for life. Under the Denial of Federal Benefits Program, the denial of certain other types of benefits by judges, such as federal grants and contracts, can range from 1 year to life depending on the type of offense and number of convictions. In some cases, the period of benefit ineligibility may be shortened if offenders complete drug treatment. For example, students may have their postsecondary education benefits restored if they satisfactorily complete a drug treatment program that satisfies certain criteria and includes two unannounced drug tests. Under the Denial of Federal Benefits Program, the denial of benefits penalties may, for example, be waived if a person successfully completes a drug treatment program. Other than offenders who were convicted of methamphetamine offenses, drug offenders that successfully complete drug treatment may receive federally assisted housing benefits prior to the end of their period of ineligibility. In states that have passed laws so specifying, drug offenders may shorten the period of ineligibility for TANF and food stamp benefits by completing drug treatment. (See table 2.) The legislative history of these provisions is silent as to whether they were intended to do more than provide for denying federal benefits to drug offenders, such as deterring drug offenders from committing future criminal acts. For example, our 1992 report indicated that in the floor debates over the Denial of Federal Benefits Program, some members of Congress expressed the opinion that even casual drug use should result in serious consequences, such as the loss of federal benefits. With respect to prohibiting drug offenders from public housing, congressional findings made in 1990 and amended in 1998 address the extent of drug-related criminal activities in public housing and the federal government’s duty to provide public and other federally assisted low-income housing that is decent, safe, and free from illegal drugs. TANF, food stamps, federally assisted housing, and Pell Grants are means- tested benefits. To receive the benefits, individuals must meet certain eligibility criteria. These criteria vary with the benefit. For instance, states determine maximum earned income limits for TANF, but to receive food stamps, the federal poverty guidelines are generally used in determining eligibility. To receive federally assisted housing, local area median income is used. Additionally, most adults eligible for TANF and some adults eligible for food stamps must meet specified work requirements to participate in the programs. Table 3 summarizes the general eligibility requirements for the federal benefits discussed in this report and identifies the federal, state, and local agencies responsible for administering the programs. Not all persons who meet the general eligibility requirements to receive federal benefits participate in the respective programs. Our recent study on programs that aim to support needy families and individuals shows that the portion of those eligible to receive the benefits that actually enrolled in the programs varied among programs. Among families eligible to participate in TANF in 2001, between 46 percent and 50 percent were estimated to be participating in the program. For food stamps in 2001, between 46 percent and 48 percent of eligible households were estimated to participate in the program. For federally assisted housing, between 13 percent and 15 percent of eligible households in 1999 were estimated to be covered by the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Program and between 7 percent and 9 percent of eligible households in 1999 were estimated to be covered by the Public Housing Program. Further, the Department of Education reports that among all applicants for federal postsecondary education assistance in academic year 2001-2002, about 77 percent of the applicants that were eligible to receive Pell Grants applied for and received them. Drug offenders would be directly affected by the federal provisions that allow for denial of low-income federal benefits when, apart from their disqualifying drug offense, they would have qualified to receive the benefits. For example, if a drug offender is not in a financially needy family and living with her dependent child, the drug offender would not be eligible for TANF benefits aside from the drug offense conviction. To be directly affected by the ban on food stamps, a drug offender would have had to meet income tests and work requirements, unless the work requirements are, under certain specified circumstances, identified as not applicable by federal food stamp laws; otherwise, the offender’s ineligibility to receive the benefit would disqualify him, as opposed to his drug offense. Because the ban on the receipt of TANF and food stamps is for life, an offender who is not otherwise eligible to receive the benefits at one point in time might become otherwise eligible to receive the benefits at a later point in time and at that time be affected by the provisions of PRWORA. To be otherwise eligible to receive federal postsecondary education assistance, a person convicted of a disqualifying drug offense would, at a minimum, have to be enrolled in or accepted at an institution of higher education, as well as meet certain income tests. To be otherwise eligible for federally assisted housing benefits, a person would have to meet income tests. We estimated that among applicants for federal postsecondary education assistance, drug offenders constituted less than 0.5 percent on average of all applicants for assistance during recent years. In general, the education attainment level of drug offenders is lower than that of the general population, and this lower level affects drug offenders’ eligibility for federal postsecondary assistance. Among selected large PHAs that reported denying applicants admission into public housing during 2003, less than 5 percent of applicants were denied admission because of drug- related criminal activities. PHAs have discretion in developing policies to deny offenders for drug-related criminal activities. Federal and state court sentencing judges were reported to impose sanctions to federal benefits to fewer than 600 convicted drug offenders in 2002 and 2003, or less than 0.2 percent of felony drug convictions on average. According to Department of Education data on applicants for federal postsecondary education assistance for the academic years from 2001- 2002 through 2003-2004, less than 0.5 percent on average of the roughly 11 million to 13 million applicants for assistance reported on their applications that they had a drug offense conviction that made them ineligible to receive education assistance in the year in which they applied. These numbers do not take into account the persons who did not apply for federal postsecondary education assistance because they thought that their prior drug convictions would preclude them from receiving assistance or any applicant who falsified information about drug convictions.