Congress Adjourns without Reauthorizing TANF

IMMIGRANTS & PUBLIC BENEFITS

TANF Reauthorization

Congress adjourns without reauthorizing TANF
Immigrants' Rights Update, Vol. 16, No. 7, November 22, 2002

Congress adjourned on Nov. 22, 2002, having put off most of the difficult spending decisions it faced, including those regarding the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, until next year. The House of Representatives and Senate passed resolutions that extended funding for federal agencies at current levels until Jan. 11, 2003, and extended the welfare law, which created TANF, through Mar. 31, 2003.

Lawmakers have negotiated for months on how best to renew the 1996 welfare law, which expired on Sept. 30, 2002. In late Sept. 2002, Congress approved a three-month extension allowing states to continue receiving federal funds while lawmakers work out an agreement on a longer extension of the program. Because that extension is scheduled to expire on Dec. 31, 2002, and Congress adjourned without reauthorizing the welfare law, it approved the three-month extension that is due to expire on Mar. 31, 2003.

One of the key issues dividing lawmakers is the question of whether or not to include immigrant child health and prenatal care restorations. Although the White House had been unsupportive of them, advocates had hoped that the restorations would be adopted by Congress in its post-election session, as part of a TANF reauthorization compromise.

Before adjourning for the election earlier this month, the Senate Finance Committee had been considering a three-year extension of the TANF program that would maintain current funding levels. In negotiating this compromise, Democrats and Republicans identified two or three priority issues that should be included in the final bill. Republicans are seeking funding for marriage promotion programs and trying to toughen work requirements. Democrats have highlighted a number of priorities, including additional childcare funding and the immigrant restorations that were included in the Senate Finance Committee's TANF bill (for details of the immigrant provisions included in the Senate Finance Committee TANF bill, see "Senate Finance Committee Votes to Include Restorations of Benefits to Immigrants in TANF Bill," Immigrants' Rights Update, July 29, 2002, p. 14). But the White House and Senate Republicans have strongly opposed the inclusion of any immigrant restorations, expressly rejecting proposals to include the Immigrant Children's Health Improvement Act (ICHIA). ICHIA would allow states the option of covering lawfully present pregnant women and children under Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

The opposition of the Bush administration is particularly surprising given that just a few weeks ago, in regulations that allow states to provide prenatal care by extending coverage to fetuses, the administration held that "it would be inconsistent with [the goal of maximizing the availability of prenatal care and promoting the overall health of infants and children] to tie services for prenatal care to the immigration status of the mother." In making this statement, the administration appeared to agree that the welfare law's restrictions on immigrant eligibility for benefits—including prenatal care and health care for legal immigrant children—undermine public health goals. Yet the administration has pushed against the inclusion of ICHIA during negotiations.

The administration's position is also surprising considering that President Bush and his political advisors have been courting the Latino vote. Due in part to the confusion created by the welfare law's restrictions as well as the hostile message they send, Latino children are among the most likely to lack health insurance in the nation.