On the recordSeptember 21, 2011
I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's suggestion that this legislation should be amended to revive the TANF Supplemental Grants program. TANF supplemental grants expired in June 2011 in accordance with legislation Democrats crafted last year that President Obama signed into law. These payments have now expired and are not payable under current law. Extending them would mean spending more money to revive the program, which is beyond the scope of what we're doing today in maintaining only current TANF programs. Since TANF supplemental grants were first paid, about $4 billion in extra TANF programs have been paid out only to a minority of States. At some point, we have to ask when such supplemental spending should come to an end. The last Congress, which, again, was led by Democratic majorities, said the end should come this past June. I respect that judgment. The committee is obviously aware of Mr. Doggett's bill to extend these payments yet again, but we don't know how he would pay for that since the bill he introduced includes no pay-for. That would mean increasing our current historic deficits even more. All States received a share of $5 billion in special welfare funds in the 2009 stimulus bill. That was on top of almost $17 billion in TANF block grant payments all States receive each year, including those that previously collected supplemental grants.…
