	Introduction

The 109th Congress is considering legislation to reauthorize and amend programs that werecreated or revised in the 1996 welfare reform law. (1) Early in the 109th Congress, the Senate Finance and Health,Education, Labor, and Pensions Committees approved and reported their welfare reauthorizationlegislation (respectively, S. 667 and S. 525 ). On November 18, 2005, the House passed its budget reconciliation bill ( S. 1932 ), which includes welfare reauthorization legislation similar to that which passed the House in2002 and 2003. (The House-passed version of S. 1932 is H.R. This report compares the welfare reauthorization policies proposed in the Senate committeebills with those included in the House-passed budget reconciliation bill. Table 1 summarizes what provisions are included in the Senate committee bills and theHouse reconciliation bill. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Block Grant

The Senate-committee and House welfare reauthorization proposals have many similarities,with both extending basic TANF funding at current levels through FY2010 and incorporatingPresident Bush's proposal to provide categorical "marriage promotion" grants. (2) Both bills also raise TANFwork participation standards, though the two differ in terms of how much more work would berequired and what activities count toward the participation standards. Currently, supplemental grants total $319 million per year. It also would revise the criteria of economic need for a state. Both the Senate Finance Committee bill and House budget reconciliation bill wouldsubstantially revise TANF work participation standards. Both the Senate Finance Committee bill and the House budget reconciliation bill would raisethe work participation standard for all families to 70% by FY2010, and eliminate the separatestandard for two-parent families. Both the Senate Finance Committee bill and the House budget reconciliation bill raise thehours standards. Both the Senate Finance Committee and House budget reconciliation bills would carve outspecial "marriage promotion grants" from existing TANF funding. Both bills also would provide an additional $100 million for research and demonstrations. The Finance Committee-passed bill (S. 667) contains the proposedmandatory funding appropriation for Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) programs,while the HELP Committee-passed bill (S. 525) includes proposed discretionary fundingauthorization, and all provisions relating to the reauthorization of the CCDBG Act. Puerto Rico would receive $75 million of the $6 billion, whereas undercurrent law (as well as the House bill), Puerto Rico receives no mandatory child care funding. It would (1) authorize competitive grants for responsible fatherhood projects to public andnonprofit community entities, including religious organizations, and to Indian tribes and tribalorganizations, for demonstration service projects and activities designed to test the effectiveness ofvarious approaches to accomplish the four specified responsible fatherhood program objectives --eligible entities would be allowed to apply for either full service grants or limited purpose grants of$25,000 or less per fiscal year; (2) authorize funding for two multicity, multistate fatherhooddemonstration projects to be developed and conducted by a national nonprofit fatherhood promotionorganization; (3) authorize funding for an evaluation of the competitive grant projects and themulticity, multistate demonstration projects; and (4) authorize the Secretary of HHS by grant, contract, or cooperative agreement to carry out projects and activities of national significance relatingto fatherhood promotion -- such projects or activities could include collection and dissemination ofinformation, media campaigns, technical assistance to public and private entities, and research. Distribution of Child Support. S. 667 would allow states to pay up to $400 per month in child support collectedon behalf of a TANF (or foster care) family ($600 per month to a family with two or more children)to the family and would not require the state to pay the federal government the federal share of thosepayments. The House budget reconciliation bill would allowstates to increase the amount of collected child support they pay to families receiving TANF benefitsand would not require the state to pay the federal government the federal share of the increasedpayments.
The 109th Congress is considering legislation to reauthorize and amend programs that werecreated or revised in the 1996 welfare reform law. Early in 2005, the Senate Committees on Financeand Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) reported their welfare reauthorization legislation(respectively, S. 667 and S. 525 ). These bills have yet to see floor actionand remain pending in the Senate. The House passed welfare reauthorization as part of its spendingbudget reconciliation bill (the House-passed version of S. 1932 ). The Senate-passed spending reconciliation bill does not include welfare reauthorization provisions.
Both the Senate Finance Committee bill and the House reconciliation bill would reauthorizethrough FY2010 and revise the block grant of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). They both revise TANF work participation standards aimed to require more families on the welfarerolls to work or participate in job preparation activities. The Senate committee bill would allow abroad range of activities engaged in by recipients to count toward meeting these standards, while theHouse bill would narrow the focus of activities to work or "workfare" outside of a four-monthperiod. Both the Senate committee and House reconciliation bills also would establish $200 millionper year in grants to promote "healthy" marriages.
Both the Senate committee and House reconciliation bills would extend and increase fundingfor mandatory child care, though the size of the funding increase is a major difference between thetwo proposals -- $6 billion over five years in the Senate committee bill and $0.5 billion over fiveyears in the House bill. Both would also reauthorize the Child Care and Development Block Grant(CCDBG), increasing its authorization to $3.1 billion by FY2010, and would revise CCDBG rules,including those related to making school-readiness a program goal and increasing the percentage offunds to improve the quality of child care.
Both the Senate committee and House reconciliation bills would revise the Child SupportEnforcement program to provide financing options for states to pay more collected child support tofamilies on TANF or who have left the rolls. (Generally, federal and state governments keep childsupport collected for TANF families as reimbursement for their welfare costs.) The Senatecommittee bill would provide partial federal funding for child support passed through to families --up to $400 per month for one child and $600 per month for two or more children. The House billwould provide partial federal funding to states that increase the amount of passed-through childsupport. The House reconciliation bill also would reduce federal funding to the states to operatetheir child support programs. Both Senate committee and House bills would also establish"responsible fatherhood" programs to fund activities to increase the participation of noncustodialparents in their children's lives. The Senate committee bill would provide $50 million per year inmandatory funding (and authorize another $26 million per year); the House reconciliation bill wouldauthorize (but not provide funding) for up to $20 million per year. This report will be updated asneeded.