One of the ways our government provides a safety net for those less fortunate is through a program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF.  TANF was enacted in 1996 as a program that replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), which used to provide cash assistance to families with children experiencing poverty.  Under TANF, the federal government provides a block grant to the states, which then use these funds to run their own programs.  To receive federal funds, states must also spend some of their own dollars on those programs and face severe fiscal penalties if they fail to do so.  This state-spending requirement, known as the “maintenance of effort” (MOE) requirement, replaced the state match that AFDC required.

So what have we done with the federal TANF money?

We’ve let it pile up unused.

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