Congressional Research Service Reports - 156 Matching Results
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- The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Block Grant: Responses to Frequently Asked Questions
- 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
- Child Welfare and Family Problems: Legislation and Issues in the 97th Congress
- This issue brief contains a discussion of the evolution of existing child and family related social services programs.
- Same-Sex Marriages: Legal Issues
- The recognition of same-sex marriages generates debate on both the federal and state levels. Variations in state law on the issue raise questions about the validity of such unions outside the contracted jurisdiction and have bearing on the distribution of federal benefits. This report discusses the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and it's legal challenges. It reviews legal principles applied to determine the validity of a marriage contracted in another state and surveys the various approaches employed by states to enable or to prevent same-sex marriage. The report also examines House and Senate resolutions introduced in previous Congresses proposing a constitutional amendment and limiting federal courts' jurisdiction to hear or determine any question pertaining to the interpretation of DOMA.
- Same-Sex Marriages: Legal Issues
- This report discusses Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and legal challenges to it. It reviews legal principles applied to determine the validity of a marriage contracted in another state and surveys the various approaches employed by states to enable or to prevent same-sex marriage. The report also examines House and Senate resolutions introduced in previous Congresses proposing a constitutional amendment and limiting federal courts' jurisdiction to hear or determine any question pertaining to the interpretation of DOMA.
- Federal Income Tax Treatment of the Family
- No Description Available.
- Adoption in the United States
- This report discusses adoption in the U.S. and includes statistics, information on adoption related legislation, and articles on challenges and current topics of discussion related to adoption.
- The Marriage Tax Penalty: An Overview of the Issues
- No Description Available.
- The Marriage Tax Penalty: An Overview of the Issues
- No Description Available.
- The Marriage Tax Penalty: An Overview of the Issues
- No Description Available.
- Marriage Tax Penalties: Legislative Proposals in the 106th Congress
- No Description Available.
- Population Assistance and Family Planning Programs: Issues for Congress
- This report discusses the U.S. population assistance issues, policy issues in the U.S. family planning debate, and U.S. funding levels. This policy, has generated contentious debate for over two decades, resulting in frequent clarification and modification of U.S. international family planning programs.
- Abortion and Family Planning-Related Provisions in U.S. Foreign Assistance Law and Policy
- The report summarizes the legislation that imposes restrictions on the U.S. funding of abortion or family planning activities in foreign countries. The report lists the amendments concerning this legislation and historical positions of the executive branch.
- Federal Individual Income Tax Thresholds for 2004
- This report presents the tax thresholds for various families for tax year 2004.
- Tax Benefits for Families: Changes in the Definition of a Child
- No Description Available.
- The New Welfare Law: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
- No Description Available.
- The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Block Grant: An Overview
- This report provides a nontechnical introduction to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant. The report briefly describes the history of cash assistance and how the "welfare reform" debates led to the creation of TANF; TANF financing; the TANF cash welfare programs and; other TANF benefits, services, and activities.
- Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF): Characteristics of the Cash Assistance Caseload
- This report examines the TANF cash assistance caseload, focusing on how the composition and characteristics of families receiving assistance have changed over time.
- U.S. Family-Based Immigration Policy
- This report discusses family based immigration law and policy and arguments for expanding or restricting family-based immigration numbers.
- International Population Assistance and Family Planning Programs: Issues for Congress
- This report discusses the U.S. population assistance issues, policy issues in the U.S. family planning debate, and U.S. funding levels.
- Federal Expenditures for Family Planning and Population Control Bills Introduced in the 91st Congress
- This report lists federal expenditure amounts related to family planning for FY1968-1970 and population control bills introduced in the 91st Congress.
- An Overview of the Section 8 Housing Program
- No Description Available.
- An Overview of the Section 8 Housing Program
- No Description Available.
- International Population Assistance and Family Planning Programs: Issues for Congress
- This report discusses the U.S. population assistance issues, policy issues in the U.S. family planning debate, and U.S. funding levels.
- International Population Assistance and Family Planning Programs: Issues for Congress
- This report discusses the U.S. population assistance issues, policy issues in the U.S. family planning debate, and U.S. funding levels.
- Welfare, Work, and Poverty Status of Female- Headed Families with Children: 1987-2013
- The report focuses on welfare dependency and work engagement among single mothers, a major dynamic that welfare reform and accompanying policy changes have attempted to affect. It also examines the role of programs other than Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) in providing support to single female-headed families with children.
- Welfare Reform: TANF Provisions Related to Marriage and Two-Parent Families
- The shrinkage in U.S. family cash welfare rolls has slowed to a near halt, although national numbers still are 50% below those of August, 1996, when Congress created the time-limited and work-conditioned block grant program of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Under TANF, the nature of the caseload has changed. The share of recipients who combine welfare and work has risen sharply (from 11% to 26%).
- The Child Support Enforcement Program: A Fact Sheet
- This report discusses the Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program, Part D of Title IV of the Social Security Act, was enacted in January 1975 (P.L. 93-647).
- Parental Kidnapping
- No Description Available.
- Child Support Enforcement: Program Basics
- In FY2004, the CSE program collected $21.9 billion in child support payments and served 15.9 million child support cases. However, the program still collects only 18% of child support obligations for which it has responsibility and collects payments for only 51% of its caseload.
- Same-Sex Marriages: Legal Issues
- Report on the legal issues surrounding same-sex marriage, including the Defense of Marriage Act, challenges to the act, state response, federal legislation, and more.
- The Child Support Enforcement Program
- This report provides summary information on the child support enforcement program, established under title IV-D of the Social Security Act. It includes basic program statistics and a description of the administrative structure and major characteristics of the program.
- Child Support Enforcement
- 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 analysis.
- Fatherhood Initiatives: Connecting Fathers to Their Children
- This report discusses programs that promote the financial and personal responsibility of noncustodial fathers to their children and increase the participation of fathers in the lives of their children. These programs have come to be known as "responsible fatherhood" programs.
- A History of Federal Estate, Gift, and Generation-Skipping Taxes
- This report details the history of the three federal transfer taxes, tracing their development from their eighteenth century roots to the present.
- Fatherhood Initiatives: Connecting Fathers to Their Children
- This report discusses "responsible fatherhood" programs that promote the financial and personal responsibility of noncustodial fathers to their children and increase the participation of fathers in the lives of their children.
- Adoption Promotion Legislation in the 105th Congress
- This report discusses the type of adoption legislation in the 105th Congress. Specifically, the report tackles the idea that children are kept in foster care too long and that this may cause lower adoption rates. The report also discusses the enormous support for this legislation in the Senate and the House.
- Dependent Care: Current Tax Benefits and Legislative Issues
- No Description Available.
- The Federal Income Tax and the Treatment of Married Couples: Background and Analysis
- Defining the married couple as a single tax unit under the federal individual income tax means that some married couples pay more income tax than they would as two unmarried singles (a marriage tax penalty) while other married couples pay less income tax than they would as two unmarried singles (a marriage tax bonus).
- The Federal Income Tax and the Treatment of Married Couples: Background and Analysis
- This report provides background and analysis of the Federal Income Tax and the treatment of married couples.
- Adoption Promotion Legislation in the 105th Congress
- President Clinton signed the Adoption and Safe Families Act into law on November 19, 1997, after the House and Senate approved final versions of the legislation on November 13. The new law (P.L. 105-89) is intended to promote adoption or other permanent arrangements for foster children who are unable to return home, and to make general improvements in the nation’s child welfare system. The House initially passed legislation (H.R. 867) on April 30 by a vote of 416-5, and the Senate passed an amended version on November 8. A compromise version was passed on November 13, by a vote of 406-7 in the House and by unanimous consent in the Senate. This report discusses the final version of the legislation, as enacted into law.
- The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA): An Overview
- This report discusses the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA), as amended, is intended to help employees balance work and family life. The act provides eligible employees with two types of job-protected leave: regular leave and military family leave. In turn, military family leave consists of qualifying exigency leave and military caregiver leave.
- Child Support Provisions Considered But Not Enacted During the 2002-2005 Welfare Reauthorization Debate
- Although the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (enacted February 8, 2006) included significant changes to the Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program, it did not include many of the child support provisions that had been considered during the preceding four-year debate within the context of welfare reauthorization. This report discusses 12 such provisions that were passed by either the House or the Senate Finance Committee (or both). The Administration has included several of these provisions in its FY2008 budget.
- Child Support Enforcement: $25 Annual User Fee
- This report discusses the Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program, which was enacted in 1975 as a federal-state program 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.
- Child Support Enforcement: New Reforms and Potential Issues
- P.L. 104-193 (the 1996 welfare reform legislation) made major changes to the Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program. Some of the changes include requiring states to increase the percentage of fathers identified, establishing an integrated, automated network linking all states to information about the location and assets of parents, and requiring states to implement more enforcement techniques to obtain collections from debtor parents. Additional legislative changes were made in 1997, 1998, and 1999, but not in 2000, 2001, or 2002. This report describes several aspects of the revised CSE program and discusses three issues that probably will be reexamined by the 108th Congress — CSE financing, parental access by noncustodial parents, and distribution of support payments.
- Child Welfare: Reauthorization of the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program in the 107th Congress
- This report discusses the reauthorization of the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Amendments of 2001. The new law maintains the FY2001 mandatory funding level, authorizes additional discretionary funding, and grants new program authority to provide mentoring services for children of prisoners. In addition, the enacted legislation allows states to use Promoting Safe and Stable Families funds for infant "safe haven" programs, provides for reallocation of unused program funds, clarifies language defining family support programs, and gives more explicit instructions to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regarding use of funds set aside for research, evaluation and technical assistance.
- Family Violence Prevention and Services Act: Programs and Funding
- This report describes programs authorized under the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA) and related initiatives, and provides authorization and appropriation levels. The FVPSA was originally enacted in 1984, as Title III of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, to assist states in preventing incidents of family violence and to provide shelter and related assistance to victims of family violence and their dependents, with the expectation of preventing future acts of violence in families.
- Family Law: Congress's Authority to Legislate on Domestic Relations Questions
- This report discusses the extent to which Congress is constitutionally authorized to legislate on family law questions, and includes examples of present laws utilizing the various approaches available in this area.
- Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF): Eligibility and Benefit Amounts in State TANF Cash Assistance Programs
- This report describes state the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) financial eligibility rules and maximum benefit amounts. The report discusses cash assistance benefit amounts for needy families that are not automatically adjusted for inflation by the states, and have lost considerable value in terms of their purchasing power over time.
- International Population Assistance and Family Planning Programs: Issues for Congress
- This report provides context for the debate concerning international population planning based on principles of volunteerism and informed choice that gives participants access to information on all methods of birth control and discusses funding levels.
- Child Support Enforcement: New Reforms and Potential Issues
- P.L. 104-193 (the 1996 welfare reform legislation) made major changes to the Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program. Some of the changes include requiring states to increase the percentage of fathers identified, establishing an integrated, automated network linking all states to information about the location and assets of parents, and requiring states to implement more enforcement techniques to obtain collections from debtor parents. Additional legislative changes were made in 1997, 1998, and 1999, but not in 2000, 2001, 2002, or 2003. This report describes several aspects of the revised CSE program and discusses three issues that probably will be reexamined by the 108th Congress — CSE financing, parental access by noncustodial parents, and distribution of support payments.