Foreword
In 1996, Congress created Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), a program that replaced the Federal welfare system with block grant funds that States can distribute as they see fit, within certain rules and limitations.The program allows States to limit their first year’s benefit payments to new residents to the amount the recipients had received in their previous States of residence. The provision was enacted, in part, to prevent high-benefit States from becoming "welfare magnets" that would attract poor people interested in receiving increased aid. Following passage of the bill, 12 States implemented such restrictions. One, California, had already experimented…
