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Child Welfare Issues in the 108th Congress

Description: The purpose of this report is to present a number of generally less broad legislative proposals related to child welfare financing have been introduced in the 108th Congress. Additional child welfare-related proposals designed to improve services, promote timely placement of children across state lines, and for other purposes, are described in this report.
Date: September 17, 2004
Creator: Stoltzfus, Emilie
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Child Support Enforcement: New Reforms and Potential Issues

Description: This report describes several aspects of the revised CSE program and discusses three issues that probably will be reexamined by the 107th Congress — CSE financing, parental access by noncustodial parents, and distribution of support payments.
Date: September 5, 2002
Creator: Solomon-Fears, Carmen
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Earned Income Tax Credit: Current Issues and Benefit Amounts

Description: The earned income tax credit (EITC), established in the tax code in 1975, offers cash aid to working parents with relatively low incomes who care for dependent children. The EITC is the only federal cash aid available to all working poor families with children. For eligible filers with income tax liability, the EITC reduces their taxes.
Date: September 1, 2000
Creator: Gish, Melinda
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Charitable Choice, Faith-Based Initiatives, and TANF

Description: The 108th Congress has resumed efforts to pass tax incentives for private giving (S. 476, passed by the Senate on April 9, and H.R. 7, introduced May 7, 2003). However, these bills do not contain provisions intended to promote religious organizations as providers of federally funded social services – charitable choice provisions.. The House voted in 2001 to extend charitable choice rules, which now apply to a limited set of programs, to numerous new programs (H.R. 7 in the 107th Congress), as t… more
Date: September 30, 2003
Creator: Burke, Vee
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Welfare Reform: An Issue Overview

Description: Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said September 4 that he would continue to work toward a bipartisan consensus on reauthorization of TANF, which is scheduled to expire on September 30. Noting the continued decline in the TANF caseload, the Senator said that “simply going off welfare doesn’t mean that families have achieved significant income and job security.” He said the next phase of welfare reform should focus on strengthening policies to provide every TANF family the opportu… more
Date: September 5, 2003
Creator: Burke, Vee
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Welfare Reform: An Issue Overview

Description: The House passed a bill (H.R. 3146) on September 24 to extend TAIF, mandatory child care, abstinence education, and transitional Medicaid, on current terms, through March 31, 2004. In the absence of legislation these programs would expire on September 30. The Senate Finance Committee approved a comprehensive TAIF preauthorization proposal of Chairman Chuck Grassley on September 10. Entitled Personal Responsibility and Individual Development for Everyone (PRIDE), the legislation would extend TAN… more
Date: September 25, 2003
Creator: Burke, Vee
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) and the Welfare-to-Work (WtW) Tax Credit

Description: The Work Opportunity Tax Credit and Welfare-to-Work Tax Credit are temporary provisions of the Internal Revenue Code. Since their initiation in the mid-1990s, the Congress has allowed the credits to lapse four of the five times they were up for reauthorization. In each instance, they were reinstated retroactive to their expiration dates as part of large tax-related measures. The employment tax credits never have been addressed independently of broader legislation. This report describes the WOTC… more
Date: September 16, 2005
Creator: Levine, Linda
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Hurricane Katrina: Medicaid Issues

Description: This report discusses the following: Medicaid’s rules on eligibility, benefits, and financing in the context of current questions and issues raised by Hurricane Katrina. Recent state actions in response to Medicaid issues raised by the hurricane. Federal Medicaid waiver authority, including information on current activity in this area and the New York Disaster Relief Medicaid waiver granted in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks. Current federal legislation related to Medicaid and H… more
Date: September 15, 2005
Creator: Baumrucker, Evelyne P.; Grady, April; Hearne, Jean P.; Herz, Elicia J.; Rimkunas, Richard; Stone-Axelrad, Julie et al.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF): Its Role In Response to the Effects of Hurricane Katrina

Description: 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 as helping fund ongoing cash welfare benefits for families with children, but the block grant may also fund other benefits and services such as emergency payments, child care.
Date: September 16, 2005
Creator: Falk, Gene
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Child Support Enforcement

Description: During the first session of the 98th Congress, the House passed H.R. 4325, 422-0. This measure requires States to adopt several methods of enforcing overdue child support obligations, including mandatory wage withholding; requires States to permit establishment of paternity until a child's 18th birthday; alters the incentive payment formula for child support collections; and extends the formula to collections made on behalf of non-AFDC children. The report includes background and policy analysi… more
Date: September 13, 1984
Creator: Solomon-Fears, Carmen
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Homeless: Overview of the Problem and the Federal Response

Description: This report discusses the problem of homelessness in the U.S. and the resulting policy response. Unlike the skid row "derelicts" who comprised the typical homeless population of the 1960s, today's street people represent many diverse groups including: the mentally ill, evicted families, the aged, alcoholics, drug addicts, abused spouses, abused young people, and cast-off children.
Date: September 14, 1984
Creator: Spar, Karen & Austin, Monique C.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Millennium Development Goals: The September 2010 U.N. High-level Meeting

Description: This report discusses overarching trends in Millennium Development Goals (MDG) progress and lessons learned from previous and ongoing efforts to achieve them. The MDGs are a group of measurable development targets agreed to by 189 U.N. member states - including the United States - as part of the 2000 Millennium Declaration. The MDGs cover a number of issues, such as eradicating extreme hunger and poverty, combating HIV/AIDS, and promoting gender equality and women's empowerment. This report exa… more
Date: September 23, 2010
Creator: Blanchfield, Luisa & Lawson, Marian Leonardo
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Poverty in the United States: 2009

Description: This report discusses the state of poverty in the United States, including how poverty is measured, selected poverty-related demographics, and certain federal aid efforts to those who are impoverished.
Date: September 20, 2010
Creator: Gabe, Thomas
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP): Program and Funding

Description: This report describes appropriations of Low-Income Home Energy Assistance program (LIHEAP) funds for FY2008 and FY2007. It also discusses current issues and legislation related to LIHEAP. The report also discusses LIHEAP rules, including household eligibility and how funds may be used, and presents the most recent data available from HHS regarding household characteristics and benefit levels. Finally, the last section discusses how each category of LIHEAP funds is distributed to states, as well… more
Date: September 18, 2008
Creator: Perl, Libby
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Noncitizen Eligibility for Federal Public Assistance: Policy Overview and Trends

Description: This report discusses the extent to which residents of the United States who are not U.S. citizens should be eligible for federally-funded public aid. This issue meets at the intersection of two major policy areas: immigration policy and welfare policy. This report deals with the four major federal means-tested benefit programs: the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps), the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TAN… more
Date: September 27, 2012
Creator: Wasem, Ruth Ellen
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Drug Testing and Crime-Related Restrictions in TANF, SNAP, and Housing Assistance

Description: Report that describes and compares the drug- and crime-related policy restrictions contained in selected federal programs that provide assistance to low-income individuals and families: the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly Food Stamps), and the three primary federal housing assistance programs (the public housing program, the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program, and the project-based Section 8 rental a… more
Date: September 6, 2012
Creator: McCarty, Maggie; Falk, Gene; Aussenberg, Randy Alison & Carpenter, David H.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Child Support Enforcement: Program Basics

Description: This report discusses the Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program that was enacted in 1975 as a federal-state program (Title IV-D of the Social Security Act) to help strengthen families by securing financial support for children from their noncustodial parent on a consistent and continuing basis and by helping some families to remain self-sufficient and off public assistance by providing the requisite CSE services.
Date: September 12, 2013
Creator: Solomon-Fears, Carmen
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Poverty: Major Themes in Past Debates and Current Proposals

Description: This report begins with an overview of trends affecting both the incidence of poverty and characteristics of the population, and highlights changing perceptions of the poor and causes of poverty. The report then provides a short history of key federal policies enacted over the past century to address poverty. To provide a framework for analyzing current and future proposals, the report then presents several overarching themes that have recurred in poverty policy debates over the course of this … more
Date: September 18, 2014
Creator: Falk, Gene & Spar, Karen
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Block Grant: Responses to Frequently Asked Questions

Description: This report provides responses to frequently asked questions about the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant. It is intended to serve as a quick reference to provide easy access to information and data. This report does not provide information on TANF program rules.
Date: September 23, 2014
Creator: Falk, Gene
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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