House Republicans are weighing a bill creating new eligibility restrictions and anti-fraud measures for a key anti-poverty program, including income limits on who can receive cash aid and other services.
The bill’s sponsor says the new measures will protect the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program — that also funds some state child welfare agencies — from “abuse and misuse of taxpayer dollars.” Democrats and advocates for low-income children and families are raising concerns the bill could cut off kinship caregivers raising children who are separated from their parents.
The Preventing Waste, Fraud, and Abuse in TANF Act, sponsored by Republican Rep. Mike Carey of Ohio, requires the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to take annual measurements of “improper payments,” and create new plans to eliminate them. The bill limits eligibility to families earning 200% of the federal poverty level, or roughly $51,000 for a family of three. Currently, states have widely varying income limits for families.
If passed in the House and Senate and signed by the president, states would have three years to spend TANF funds before the money must be returned to the federal government. There is currently no limit on how long states can hang onto their annual TANF allotment, and federal data show they have used that discretion to accumulate nearly $10 billion in reserves.
Carey described the need for his bill on the U.S. House floor last week.
“Taxpayers deserve to have confidence that their tax dollars are being used effectively, and, as intended,” he said. “Without additional safeguards, TANF will remain vulnerable to bad actors. This matters not only to taxpayers, but even more so to the families who actually need the help.”
The Republican House Majority Leader Steve Scalise had announced a vote last Wednesday for the Preventing Waste, Fraud, and Abuse in TANF Act, but it was postponed late in the afternoon. A spokesperson for Scalise confirmed via e-mail that the bill will not receive a vote this week, but added that he anticipates it “will be considered later this summer.” The offices of four lawmakers on the House Ways and Means Committee declined or did not respond to requests for comment.
The Biden administration proposed but never finalized a similar income cap for TANF, in response to cases of abuse in states like Mississippi, and misuse in Michigan. But Congressional Democrats are opposing Carey’s bill, arguing it doesn’t do enough to prevent the worst abuses of the program. They also warn the new legislation will be used by the Trump administration to punish Democratic-run states.
In a written dissent to the bill in the House Ways and Means Committee, Democratic leader Rep. Richard Neal said the only part of Carey’s bill “that is about fraud is its misleading title.” He also argued it would give the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services “a new tool to cut or freeze funding for states on the Trump enemies list.”
Some human services providers and advocates for kinship caregivers are also sounding the alarm. They say the legislation could cut off financial support for needy families living just above the poverty level but still struggling to get by. That group includes children separated from parents and living with their low-income relatives.
TANF spending varies widely between states, due to the broad latitude afforded them under the program’s block grant structure. In 2024, TANF’s cash aid program provided a family of three with $1,370 in Minnesota but just $204 in Arkansas, according to a survey by the nonprofit National Center for Children in Poverty. The maximum monthly earnings for an eligible family of three ranged from roughly $280 in Arkansas to $2,679 in Minnesota — well below Carey’s proposed threshold of twice the poverty line.
“Child-only” grants for relative caregivers account for roughly half of all TANF cash aid spent by states. That benefit assists grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings or other kin caring for relatives’ children.
But cash assistance represents just one-fifth of the total that most states spend with TANF block grants, according to federal data. The program now mainly funds other programs, such as child care in Minnesota, child welfare services in Georgia, legal aid for kin in West Virginia, and a “Kinship Navigator” in Louisiana. Some of those programs have more lenient eligibility rules, allowing people with higher total household incomes to receive the assistance.
Under Carey’s bill families making more than 200% of the federal poverty level would no longer be eligible for those TANF-funded services or cash aid.
The Washington, D.C.-based research and advocacy firm Generations United, which supports kinship caregivers, issued a “call to action” last week in opposition to the bill. In an emailed statement, spokesperson Jaia Lent said they support the intent — narrowing TANF’s focus to “those who need it most.” But she said that aim is outweighed by concerns that needy kinship families would get cut off lifeline services in the process.
“Our concern is that the restrictions it imposes may inadvertently impact creative programs that help kinship families who step forward to care for children and keep them out of foster care,” said Lent. “We must protect the few supports and services available to kin caregivers and invest in improvements to ensure they are given critical assistance to help children thrive.”