Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF): Its Role in Response to the Effects of Hurricane Katrina

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
(TANF): Its Role in Response to the Effects
of Hurricane Katrina
Gene Falk
Specialist in Social Legislation
Domestic Social Policy Division
Summary
The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant provides grants
to states to help them fund a wide variety of benefits and services to low-income
families with children. TANF is best known for funding cash welfare benefits for
families with children, but the block grant may also fund other benefits and services
such as emergency payments, child care, transportation assistance, and other social
services. Welfare programs are not usually associated with responses to natural
disasters. However, the scope of Hurricane Katrina’s displacement of families, the
strain placed on responding human service agencies, plus the flexibility allowed states
to design programs under TANF, made the block grant a potential source of help to the
victims of this disaster. P.L. 109-68 provided some additional TANF funds and waived
certain program requirements for states affected by Katrina. Under that act, all states
were provided capped funding to aid evacuees from hurricane-damaged states. This
report will be not be updated.
The TANF block grant is a fixed amount of funding paid to each state based on a
formula. States design and administer benefits and services funded by TANF and have
wide latitude in their use of block grant funds. States are required to share a portion of
the cost of TANF benefits and services by expending some of their own funds on¹
TANF-related benefits and services through a “maintenance of effort” requirement.
TANF Cash Welfare Benefit Programs
TANF is the major federal-state program providing cash assistance to needy families
with children. While federal TANF grants help fund this cash assistance, states determine

¹ For details on TANF grants and financing, as well as requirements the block grant places on
states, see CRS Report RL32748, The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Block
Grant: A Primer on Financing and Requirements for State Programs, by Gene Falk.

eligibility rules and benefit amounts which vary greatly among the states. There are no
federal rules regarding eligibility and benefits for ongoing cash welfare, other than the
requirement that it be paid to families with children that meet a financial test of economic
need.
Table 1 provides some basic information on cash welfare benefits in the states
affected by Hurricane Katrina and some of their neighboring states. It shows both the
maximum monthly benefit amount paid to a family of three as of January 2005 and the
average number of families that received cash assistance in June 2006. The maximum
monthly benefit is generally the amount paid to a family with no other income sources.
TANF cash assistance benefits in this region are relatively low compared with those paid
in other regions and states. For example, the comparable maximum cash welfare grant
paid in New York City in January 2005 was $691 per month and the maximum cash
welfare grant paid to a family of three in the urban areas of California was $723 per
month.
Table 1. TANF Cash Welfare Benefits and the Cash Welfare
Caseload in Selected States Affected by Hurricane Katrina
Maximum Monthly CashAverage Monthly Numberof Families Receiving
StateWelfare Grant for aCash Assistance:
Family of 3: January 2005 June 2006
States directly affected by Hurricane Katrina
Alabama $215 18,540
Florida 303 50,801
Louisiana 240 10,582
Mississippi 170 12,597
Selected Neighboring States
Texas22367,892
Arka nsas 204 7,893
Georgi a 280 29,237
T e nnessee 185 68,151
^Source:^T^A^{NF cas}^h^as^sⁱ^s^t^an^ce^m^a^xⁱ^m^u^m^ben^e^f^it^am^ouⁿ^t^s^{are bas}^e^{d on}^{a C}^oⁿ^g^r^es^sⁱ^on^{al R}^e^s^earch^Serv^ice
^(C^R^S^{) s}^u^rv^ey^of^th^{e s}^t^ates^{. C}^a^s^h^as^sⁱ^s^t^an^{ce cas}^eloads^are^bas^e^d^on^{data f}^r^om^th^{e U.S. Departm}^eⁿ^t^of^Health
^an^{d Hu}^m^aⁿ^Serv^ices^(HHS).
TANF imposes some requirements on states with respect to families receiving cash
assistance. The purpose of the requirements is to ensure that receipt of cash welfare is
temporary and to encourage movement off the rolls and into work. TANF requires that
a specified percentage of its caseload be engaged in work or job preparation activities,
limits federally-funded assistance to five years, and requires that cash assistance recipients
cooperate with child support enforcement rules (establish paternity and assign child
support to the state).

Emergency Assistance
TANF also gives authority to states to pay “emergency assistance” benefits.
Emergency benefits are those that:
^!are considered “nonrecurrent, short-term benefits;”
^!are designed to deal with a specific crisis situation or episode of need;
^!are not intended to meet recurrent or ongoing needs; and
^!will not extend beyond four months.²
Families receiving such emergency benefits are not subject to the same requirements (i.e,
work requirements and time limits) as are families that receive cash assistance. As with
cash welfare, states determine eligibility for and the scope of emergency benefits provided
to low-income families with children.
Other Benefits and Services
In addition to ongoing cash welfare and emergency aid, TANF can fund a wide range
of other social services for low-income families with children, such as child care,
transportation aid, family preservation and support services, and similar types of services.
As with ongoing cash welfare and emergency assistance, states determine eligibility and
the scope of benefits provided to needy families with children.
Legislation to Respond to the Impact of Hurricane Katrina
Welfare programs are not usually associated with responses to natural disasters.
However, the scope of Hurricane Katrina’s displacement of families, the strain placed on
human service agencies responding to this displacement, plus the flexibility allowed states
to design programs under TANF, made the block grant a potential source of help to the
victims of this disaster. While TANF funding is flexible and provides states with options
to help needy families, the legislation passed by Congress and signed by the President
addressed some policy considerations.
Funding the benefits of evacuees of hurricane-damaged areas
receiving benefits in other states. TANF block grants are fixed amounts
determined by formula in federal law, and absent federal legislation benefits paid by a
host state to evacuees would come from that host state’s TANF allocation.
P.L. 109-68 allowed states to draw from the TANF contingency fund to provide

100% federal funding for certain benefits paid to families that evacuated hurricane-

damaged areas. Funding was capped at 20% per year of the host state’s annual block
grant. In FY2006, a total of $48.4 million was drawn from the TANF contingency fund
to provide short-term benefits for evacuees. Table 2 shows TANF contingency fund
grants for evacuees of hurricane-damaged areas.

² The rules for emergency assistance are not in TANF statute, but are in regulations promulgated
by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) at 45 CFR 260.31.

Table 2. TANF Contingency Fund Awards
to Aid Hurricane Katrina Evacuees: FY2006
StateContingency fund awards
(thousands of $)
Alabama18,663
Alaska 0
Arizona318
Arkansas166
California0
Colorado500
Connecticut0
Delaware0
District Of Col.0
Florida1,519
Georgia6,183
Hawaii0
Idaho0
Illinois0
Indiana221
Iowa0
Kansas0
Kentucky0
Louisiana999
Maine0
Maryland669
Massachusetts0
Michigan854
Minnesota114
Mississippi 4,338
Missouri0
Montana0
Nebraska86
Nevada275
New Hampshire0
New Jersey0
New Mexico0
New York92
North Carolina0
North Dakota0
Ohio0
Oklahoma0
Oregon0
Pennsylvania0
Rhode Island82

StateContingency fund awards
(thousands of $)
South Carolina0
South Dakota0
Tennessee0
Texas13,034
Utah35
Vermont0
Virginia156
Washington0
West Virginia0
Wisconsin81
Wyoming0
Total48,387
^Source:^C^oⁿ^g^r^es^sⁱ^on^{al R}^e^s^earch^Serv^{ice (C}^R^S^{) bas}^e^{d on}^{data f}^r^om^th^{e U.S. Departm}^eⁿ^t^o^f^H^e^a^l^t^h^an^d
^Hu^m^aⁿ^Serv^{ices (HHS).}
Providing additional funding to hurricane-damaged states. The fixed
TANF block grants do not adjust for changes in the circumstances of a state. Though
TANF did contemplate extra funding in the case of a recession, it has no mechanism to
increase funding in the event of a natural disaster. P.L. 109-68 provided extra funding for
FY2005 and FY2006 for the three hurricane-damaged states of Alabama, Louisiana, and
Mississippi, an extra 20% of the damaged state’s block grant.
Waiving certain TANF requirements. TANF recipients who receive ongoing
cash assistance are subject to certain requirements, such as time limits and work
requirements. For FY2005 and FY2006, P.L. 109-68 waived penalties on the states for
failure to meet state work requirements as well as the penalty for having more than 20%
of its caseload on the rolls for more than five years (the TANF time limit). It also gives
the authority to states to provide short-term, nonrecurring benefits for evacuee families
receiving benefits in other states and families in hurricane damaged states, to meet
subsistence needs and not have that time count for purposes of work requirements or time
limits.