YourVoice.Now Summary
Your MoneyWorkers & JobsTransparency & AccountabilityCivil LibertiesAdds a signed work plan to welfare aid, and cuts off families who earn over twice the poverty line in 2026.
Your Money
The state would assess each adult expected to work and write a plan with a job goal, then review it in person every 90 days. People already getting aid would have a year to comply; new applicants would have 60 days.
A quarter of the grant would have to go to work supports, training, apprenticeships, short-term help, and case management. The same share of the state's own required spending would too.
State plans would have to spell out how benefits taper off when someone starts earning, such as ignoring part of the new pay for a while. Health and Human Services must approve the plan.
Today states set their own income limits for help. From October 1, 2026, no welfare money could go to a family above twice the poverty line. For three people, that is about $4,550 a month.
If a parent skips required work hours without good cause, the state must cut the family's whole monthly payment by the share of hours missed. States may cut more.
The grant could not pay for child care or preschool directly. States could instead move up to half of it into the federal child care program, which sets its own rules.
Welfare cards already cannot be used at liquor stores, casinos, or strip clubs. Marijuana shops would join that list. That holds even where state law allows them.
Workers & Jobs
Job training and career technical education could count toward required work hours for as long as they last. Today that credit stops after 12 months. Apprenticeships would count too.
Job hunting would count toward required hours only if the program supervises it. Looking on your own would not count.
Transparency & Accountability
Health and Human Services would run a public website showing each state's job results. It would give each state a letter grade. It would also show how many people log zero work hours, and why.
Today Health and Human Services only checks that a state plan is complete. It would have to approve each two-year plan, and the plan would be posted online.
Federal error-tracking laws would cover state welfare programs for the first time. The department must write rules within two years and give Congress a plan to cut errors within one year.
Grant penalties would ride on how many people leave welfare for jobs, keep them, and what they earn — not on hours logged. Negotiated targets start in 2028.
Civil Liberties
States may now report case records for just a sample of families. That option would end. Income, work hours, and family details would be sent for every household.
More about this bill
Families could lose welfare help if they earn more than twice the poverty line. In 2026 that is about $4,550 a month for a family of three. The limit covers services, not just cash. It would start October 1, 2026. The program is Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF. It sends about $16.5 billion a year to the states. Funding would stay at that level through 2030. Every adult expected to work would sign a written plan within 60 days. Each would then meet a caseworker at least every 90 days. If a parent misses required work hours without good cause, the family's monthly check falls by the same share. States could excuse a single parent caring for a baby under one year old. Job training could count as work with no one-year cap. Only supervised job searches would count. States would have to spend at least a quarter of the grant on work supports, training, and short-term help. Office costs would be capped at 10 percent, down from 15. Case management would not count against that cap. States could not spend the grant directly on child care. They could still move up to half the grant to child care and job training programs. Money saved for later would be capped at 15 percent, and the rest spent within three years. Welfare cards could no longer be used at marijuana shops. Health and Human Services would have to approve each state plan. It would also post a public report card grading every state.
Congressional Summary
This bill reauthorizes the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program through FY2030, establishes new metrics for measuring states’ performance within the program, and makes other changes to the program’s requirements.Under current law, states participating in TANF are required to meet certain minimum participation rates, or percentages of beneficiaries engaged in work. The bill eliminates minimum participation rates and replaces them with metrics tied to employment outcomes, such as former beneficiaries’ rates of unsubsidized employment and earnings at particular points in time. The Department of Health and Human Services must publish a website with information on each state’s performance. The bill also requires states to create an individual opportunity plan for each beneficiary and to meet with each work-eligible beneficiary at least every 90 days to review the individual’s progress under their plan. (Under current law, individual plans are optional.)Further, the bill prohibits states from using TANF funds to provide benefits to families with monthly incomes that exceed twice the poverty line.Finally, the bill requires states to spend at least 25% of their TANF grant funds on certain activities, including work supports, education and training, and apprenticeships. The bill also lowers the percentage of TANF funds that a state may spend on administrative costs to 10%, with an exception for costs related to case management necessary to assist in the development of individual opportunity plans.
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- Senate
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in Senate
- Action Date
- 2025-05-01
- Date Added
- 2026-04-14
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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