Temporary Assistance for Needy Families: A Green Light for the States

Irene Lurie

Publius: The Journal of Federalism, vol. 27, issue 2, 73-87

Abstract: The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program (AFDC) with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Block Grant (TANF). TANF substitutes a block grant for the open-ended matching grants that helped finance state welfare programs, reduces federal administrative authority, ends the entitlement of individuals to welfare, limits assistance to a family to sixty months, and gives states more discretion to design their welfare programs. Instead of detailed federal prescriptions regarding the process and structure of state programs, TANF sets a few goals and mandates for the states and guides their actions with financial incentives and penalties. States have new powers to restrict access to welfare, although they also have opportunities to deflect some of the law's restrictive provisions. Copyright , Oxford University Press.

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