What is the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-193) began life as H.R. 3734 in the House of Representatives. This main purpose of this bill was to repeal Title IV of the Social Security Act of 1935, and the program then known as Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). This is the only program from the 1935 Social Security Act to ever have been repealed. Popularly, the bill was known as "welfare reform" legislation.

The main reform introduced by the bill was the end to AFDC as a categorical entitlement and its replacement by a time-limited benefit program, tied to a work requirement. The new program is known as Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF).

H.R. 3742 was one of several versions of the legislation that had been introduced in the House starting in early 1995. H.R. 3742 was the version that finally prevailed in the House, passing the House on July 18, 1996 by a vote of 256-120.

The Senate began work on its own bill (S. 1956) in July 1996, and after the House passed H.R. 3742 the text of the House bill was incorporated into S. 1956, and this expanded bill passed the Senate on July 23, 1996 by a vote of 74-24.

The Conference on the differing bills was concluded on July 30, 1996 and the Conference Agreement (House Report No. 104-725) was considered in the House the next day, and in the Senate two days later. The results of those final votes on passage of the Conference Agreement are reported below.

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The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act was passed by Congress in 1996 and signed into law by President Bill Clinton (D) on August 22, 1996. Among its provisions, the law eliminated three prior federal assistance program and replaced them with Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), a block grant program. Receipt of TANF benefits came with work requirements, and states were granted flexibility in designing their TANF programs. The law also made lawful permanent residents ineligible to receive federal means-tested benefits for five years after being granted permanent residency.[1]

Background

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act was introduced in the United States House of Representatives by Representative John Kasich (R-Ohio) on June 27, 1996. The House passed the bill by a vote of 256-170 on July 18, 1996. The United States Senate passed the bill on July 23, 1996 by a vote of 74-24. The bill was then moved to conference committee; the House agreed to the conference report 328-101, and the Senate agreed 78-21. President Bill Clinton (D) signed the bill into law on August 22, 1996.[1]

Provisions

Temporary Assistance to Needy Families

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act eliminated three prior federal assistance programs and created the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) block grant in their place. The block grant was provided to states to administer for the following purposes:[2]

• financial assistance for needy families
• promotion of work and marriage
• prevention of out-of-wedlock pregnancies
• encouragement of two-parent families

States were given flexibility to design their TANF programs, such as eligibility and benefit levels, although they were required to use objective criteria for program design.[2]

The law also established work requirements for receiving TANF benefits:[2]

• unemployed adult recipients were required to participate in community service within two months of receiving benefits
• adult recipients were required to start work within two years after receiving benefits

Parents with children younger than 12 months were exempt from these work requirements, as well as parents with children under six years unable to find childcare.

Under the law, eligibility for Medicaid was no longer linked to the receipt of federal assistance benefits. Medicaid eligibility was instead required to be based on income and available resources.[2]

In order to receive the TANF block grant, states were required to establish a child support enforcement program. Individuals receiving TANF assistance or Medicaid were required to cooperate with such enforcement efforts. Failure to do so would result in a 25 percent reduction in benefits, and states that failed to enforce this measure would see a 5 percent reduction in their block grant.[2]

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act amended the eligibility of children to receive Supplemental Security Income. Under the law, children were required to have a "medically determinable physical or mental impairment, which results in marked and severe functional limitations," and was expected to last at least one year or result in death.[2]

Benefits for immigrants

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act rescinded the eligibility of legal immigrants for food stamp assistance and Supplemental Security Income. States retained the authority to determine the eligibility of legal immigrants for Medicaid, TANF, and the Social Services Block Grant. However, states were prohibited from denying benefits for the following classes of immigrants:[2]

• refugees and asylees
• lawful permanent residents who had worked in the United States for 10 years
• veterans and active military personnel or their spouses and dependent children

Lawful permanent residents entering the country after the effective date of the law were made ineligible for federal means-tested benefits for five years after being granted permanent residency. After they had held such status for five years, they could then apply for benefits.[2]

Children

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act made amendments to foster care rules, child care funding, and child nutrition programs. The law allowed states to use federal dollars to pay for-profit foster care providers and required states to give preference to relatives when deciding foster care placements. The law also consolidated multiple funding sources for child care with the Child Care and Development Block Grant distributed to states. States were required to use 70 percent of these funds for families receiving or transitioning off of TANF benefits. Finally, federal reimbursements under the Child and Adult Care Food Program, which provided meals in high-poverty areas, were converted to a two-tier system: funding levels would be maintained for family or group day care homes in neighborhoods where 50 percent of children lived in households earning incomes below 185 percent of the federal poverty level. All other family or group day care homes would receive reduced meal reimbursements.[2]

See also

External links

• Full text of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act

Footnotes

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Congress.gov, "H.R.3734 - Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996," accessed March 16, 2017
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 FindLaw, "Major Provisions of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996," accessed March 16, 2017

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