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During the 107
th
Congress, the House of Representatives offered four key pieces of
comprehensive legislation to reauthorize P.L. 104-193. Two were Republican: H.R. 4737
(originally H.R. 4090) and H.R. 4092; and two were Democratic: H.R. 3113 and H.R. 3625.
Three were referred to the Committee on Ways and Means (H.R. 4090, H.R. 3625, and H.R.
3113) while the other was referred to the Education and Workforce Committee (H.R. 4092).
During the first few months of the 108
th
Congress, Representative Deborah Pryce reintroduced
H.R. 4737 as H.R. 4 (an ominous number because the 1996 House proposal to overhaul welfare
was also given the number H.R.4) and the legislation passed by a partisan vote on the floor.
The republican proposals H.R. 4737 and H.R. 4092 were nearly identical with the
exception that H.R. 4092 contained some language regarding childcare and funding. For the
purposes of evaluation, this study will address only the core work and funding issues proposed
because these issues appear to have generated the most debate and controversy. H.R. 4737 and
H.R. 4 proposed to change work rules by increasing the all-family participation requirement
from a current 50 percent level to 70 percent participation level by FY 2007. Under current law,
federal and State rules define what qualifies as a work activity, and recipients are required to
work at least 30 hours per week. H.R. 4737 and H.R.4 proposed to increase the work hours to 40
hours per week, including 24 of those hours in specified “work” activities such as: subsidized
jobs in the private sector, unsubsidized jobs, subsidized public jobs, on-the-job training,
supervised work training or experience, and supervised community service work. Of the
remaining 16 hours of mandated work, states were allowed to define other “countable” activities
as long as they were consistent with rules, policies, and goals of TANF. The proposals to
increase weekly work hours and new definitions of work activities appear to have sparked
disagreement among members of Congress. Much of the friction appears to be surrounding how
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