§2665.10. Legislative Base

a)         On August 22, 1996, the President signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), a comprehensive welfare reform bill, under which the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program was established to supersede the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) welfare program, the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills (JOBS) Training program and the Emergency Assistance (EA) program.  The TANF program at Section 401(a) of the Social Security Act established the following objectives:

 

1)         provide assistance to needy families so that children may be cared for in their own homes or in the homes of relatives;

 

2)         end the dependence of needy parents on government benefits by promoting job preparation, work, and marriage;

 

3)         prevent and reduce the incidence of out-of-wedlock pregnancies and establish annual numerical goals for preventing and reducing the incidence of these pregnancies; and

 

4)         encourage the formation and maintenance of two-parent families.

 

b)         On August 5, 1997, the President signed the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. This legislation amended certain TANF provisions of the Social Security Act and authorized the Secretary of Labor to provide Welfare-to-Work (WtW) grants to states and local communities for transitional employment assistance to move the hard-to-employ TANF welfare recipients into unsubsidized jobs and economic self-sufficiency.