This session, we were able to help pass an important and hard-fought bill to make Temporary Assistance For Needy Families (TANF) a more effective pathway out of poverty and fund an increase to TANF in the statewide biennial budget. In Washington and across the country, TANF provides lifesaving cash assistance to families living in deep poverty.
However, as part of the negotiations to raise the federal debt limit, the House has proposed dramatic cuts to TANF, SNAP, and Medicaid. This bill would make use of TANF funds even more rigid and complicated than it already is, disincentivize states from using money allocated for TANF, and to make work participation requirements stricter than they already are.
If families with very low incomes lose their TANF, they will fall even further below the poverty line and the face even more serious hardships — homelessness, inability to afford basics like diapers, inability to leave an abusive relationship, and physical and mental health deterioration, to name a few.
Furthermore, cutting cash assistance overall and shifting to less effective employment programs would cause disproportionate harm to women of color and their children, who endure higher poverty rates and are likelier to need cash benefits to afford basic needs due to structural racism and sexism.
We need to send a strong message that TANF, and the families who rely on it to meet their basic needs, cannot be used as a bargaining chip.
Tell our Senators to preserve TANF and defend low-income Washingtonians!
