The year 2016 marked the twentieth anniversary of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), which replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program (AFDC) with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Whereas AFDC was based on an open-ended matching grant, TANF is funded with a block grant from the federal government and “maintenance of effort” (MOE) obligations for states, which were generally set at 75 percent of nominal expenditures in the mid-1990s. This article looks at trends in TANF funding compared to trends in child poverty. We include a more comprehensive poverty measure and adjustments for interstate variation in prices. Over the past decade, inequality in state resources per poor child has increased. The disparities are great, making application of uniform TANF work participation standards to all states without adjustment for variation in resources questionable. The article concludes with an exploration of the connection between TANF resources and state fiscal capacity and a discussion of options for reform.

中文翻译：

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TANF 资源问题

2016 年是《个人责任和工作机会和解法案》(PRWORA) 颁布二十周年，该法案以贫困家庭临时援助 (TANF) 取代了对有受抚养子女家庭的援助计划 (AFDC)。AFDC 是基于开放式匹配赠款，而 TANF 的资金来自联邦政府的整笔赠款和各州的“努力维持”（MOE）义务，这些义务通常设定为中期名义支出的 75%。 1990 年代。本文着眼于与儿童贫困趋势相比的 TANF 资金趋势。我们包括更全面的贫困衡量标准和针对州际价格变化的调整。在过去十年中，每个贫困儿童的国家资源不平等加剧。差距很大，使统一的 TANF 工作参与标准适用于所有州，而无需根据资源变化进行调整。文章最后探讨了 TANF 资源与国家财政能力之间的联系，并讨论了改革方案。