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1 1 (October 1, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/goveeph0001 and id is 1 raw text is: a Congressional inResearch Service Trends in TANF Receipt: Select Information for the Debate to Extend the Expanded Child Credit October 1, 2021 The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (P.L. 117-2) temporarily expanded the child tax credit, transforming it into a near-universal cash benefit to families with children for 2021. For July to December, up to half of the credit is being advanced to families on a monthly basis. The expanded child credit was part of the policy response to the economic fall-out from the COVID-19 pandemic that included directing cash payments to households through the credit, expanded unemployment insurance, and economic impact (stimulus) payments. In fall 2021, Congress is debating whether to extend the expanded child credit, or even make parts of it permanent. This includes advance payment of the credit as a monthly cash benefit. The debate is occuring as the pandemic continues, but many of the temporary measures enacted in response to the economic fallout from the pandemic have expired-and the expanded child credit is scheduled to expire at the end of 2021. Directing cash on an ongoing basis to needy families is a departure from pre-pandemic policies to aid needy families with children. Before the pandemic, noncash benefits and refundable tax credits paid in a lump sum represented the bulk of aid for these families. This Insight looks at one of the main potential sources of monthly cash income support for families with children: public assistance from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant. Creation of TANF TANF was created in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA P.L. 104-193), which ended dedicated federal funding for public assistance to needy families with children, consolidating that funding into a broad-purpose block grant to states. PRWORAwas the culmination of a debate that spanned four decades and focused on the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program and single mothers (who headed most AFDC families). TANF's creators viewed AFDC as creating dependency on government benefits because of its effect on work and marriage. An oft-cited indicator of the impact of PRWORA is the increase in employment of single mothers. Figure 1 shows, by year, the share of single mothers who were employed and unemployed from 1994 to 2021, Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov IN11767 CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Membersand Committeesof Congress

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