HBA-MPM H.B. 1005 77(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 1005
By: Naishtat
Human Services
7/3/2001
Enrolled
        


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Under federal welfare law, states are required to achieve certain work
participation rates for recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families program (TANF).  Beginning in 2002, the required rate for
single-parent families will increase to 50 percent, and the required rate
for two-parent families will increase to 90 percent.  Because this
population includes families living in areas where unemployment is high and
is often composed of immigrant workers who are only able to work six months
out of the year, local workforce development boards may have difficulty
achieving the 90 percent work participation rate for two-parent families.
Given that two-parent families only constitute a small percentage of TANF
families, boards are providing more intensive and costly services to the
smallest portion of their caseload.  This creates inequity for all TANF
recipients,  and the failure to meet work participation rates results in
financial penalties to the state.   

When federal welfare reform legislation was passed in 1995, many areas of
the state had not developed workforce services and currently some rural
"minimum service counties" still have underdeveloped workforce services.
Some TANF recipients are approaching their lifetime allotment of financial
assistance under TANF without having received workforce services. 

House Bill 1005 provides for a state funding system that is separate from
TANF to provide financial assistance and workforce services to two-parent
families and individuals in areas defined by the Texas Workforce Commission
as minimum service counties. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that rulemaking
authority is expressly delegated to the Health and Human Services
Commission, the Texas Department of Human Services, and the Texas Workforce
Commission in SECTION 1 (Section 34.003, Human Resources Code). 

ANALYSIS

House Bill 1005 amends the Human Resources Code to require the Texas
Department of Human Services (DHS), the Health and Human Services
Commission (HHSC), and the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC), with the
participation of local workforce development boards, to jointly develop and
implement a state program of temporary assistance and related support
services (state program) that is distinct from the existing Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families program (TANF).  The bill prohibits temporary
assistance and related support services from being funded with federal
money provided to the state for TANF and authorizes assistance and services
to be provided to two-parent families or persons residing in minimum
service counties, as defined by TWC. 

The bill requires HHSC, DHS, and TWC to adopt all rules necessary for the
implementation of the state program.  The bill requires HHSC, DHS, and TWC
to form an interagency workgroup to develop the rules.  The bill requires
the interagency workgroup to allow  representatives of local workforce
development boards to participate in the development of the rules.  The
bill provides that the rules be designed to result in a state program that
is substantively identical to TANF, except with respect to  appropriate
programmatic differences. 

The bill requires HHSC, DHS, and TWC to develop and implement procedures
for minimum service counties to determine the date of a person's
eligibility for temporary assistance and related support services and
provide for the establishment of eligibility in a way that avoids
disruption of benefits.  The bill provides that a person receiving benefits
from the state program is eligible for medical assistance under the state
Medicaid program in the same manner as a person receiving financial
benefits under TANF. 

The bill requires TWC in collaboration with local workforce development
boards and the appropriate standing committees of the senate and the house
of representatives to study methods to improve service delivery of
workforce services to persons residing in minimum service counties and to
develop recommendations to improve the delivery of those services.   HHSC,
DHS, and TWC are required to monitor implementation of the state program
and to submit a joint report to the governor, legislature, and Legislative
Budget Board on the status and use of the program no later than September 1
of each year. This report must include an analysis of whether the state
program has effectively met the goals of the program and recommendations
regarding the continuation of the program.  The program expires September
2, 2003, unless continued in existence by the legislature by that date. 

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2001.