9/18/04 - Important Action Alert regarding TANF
From: Kullie Mellor, Welfare specialist, kulliejack@juno.com

Needed action: Our Congressional representatives should be urged to extend TANF immediately with a minimum 6-month extension WITHOUT any
policy alterations or new mandates.

Background quoted from Cathleen Palm's ADVOCATE'S AGENDA cpalm@comcast.net "September 14th - In just over two weeks, the current extension of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and its related anti-poverty programs, which provides Pennsylvania with more than $700 million in federal resources to provide families with critical life and work supports, will expire. TANF received its current temporary lifeline via a Congressional extension approved this past June. The extension represented the sixth time Congress has been forced to provide a lifeline, albeit temporary, for the program as Congress remains deeply divided over how to fully reauthorize the program. Inaction can be directly linked to longstanding differences of opinions both between Republicans and Democrats as well as between the United States Senate and House of Representatives on key issues - increased work hours, additional mandates on states, curtailing flexibility, insufficient child care dollars to meet current and anticipated demand, and too few opportunities for education and training.

The unsettled status of TANF is occurring at a time that federal officials report that Pennsylvania experienced a 6.7% increase in the number of TANF families (85,198 families as compared to 79,814) and a 6.8% increase in overall TANF recipients during 2003 (222,399 in 2003 versus 208,217 in 2002). The Commonwealth continues to experience fluctuations in actual number of families receiving benefits from month-to-month. However, the figures have remained consistently higher than 2002 and 2003 figures. Additionally, recently the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) released a report documenting that in May 2004, 972,469 Pennsylvanians were participating in the Food Stamp Program - 141,162 more than in May 2003 and 213,466 more than recorded in May 2002. Beyond this TANF data, the recent Census data revealed that more Pennsylvanians are living in poverty and without health insurance."

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