States raid fund meant for needy families to pay for other programs

“Overall, the states have radically abused the program,” said Robert Rector, a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank who helped craft the original law as an adviser to two members of Congress. “Almost every state government has failed to carry out the principal objectives. Promoting work is the key idea of the act and they do virtually nothing—both red and blue states.”

And at a time when tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s going to be tougher than ever for TANF parents to find work that will lift them out of poverty, advocates for low-income families say.

“The people who are struggling in poverty are probably always going to be at the end of the line, when it comes to being hired or rehired,” said Beth Giesting, a director at the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice, a nonprofit that advocates for low-income residents. “Many people are going to be affected long term by this pandemic.”