Welfare Reform Technical Corrections Act of 1997

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Title I: Block Grants for Temporary Assistance to Needy

Families

Title II: Supplemental Security Income

Subtitle A: Conforming and Technical Amendments

Subtitle B: Additional Amendments

Title III: Child Support

Title IV: Restricting Welfare and Public Benefits for Aliens

Subtitle A: Eligibility for Federal Benefits

Subtitle B: General Provisions

Subtitle C: Miscellaneous Clerical and

Technical Amendments; Effective Date

Title V: Child Protection

Title VI: Child Care

Title VII: ERISA Amendments Relating to Medical Child

Support Orders

Welfare Reform Technical Corrections Act of 1997 - Title I: Block Grants for Temporary Assistance to Needy Families - Amends part A (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) (TANF) of title IV of the Social Security Act (SSA) to make various specified technical as well as substantive amendments with regard to sundry (welfare reform) provisions added by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRAWORA).

(Sec. 102) Provides for a later deadline for submission of State TANF plans.

(Sec. 103) Revises the computation of bonus grants to States for a decrease in illegitimacy, requiring: (1) use of calendar year instead of fiscal year data; (2) use of the ratio of out-of-wedlock births to all births instead of the number of out-of-wedlock births; and (3) that certain territories be taken into account.

Revises the formula for computation of the annual reconciliation of excess grant amounts from the Contingency Fund for State Welfare Programs which States must refund to the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

(Sec. 105) Revises specified mandatory work requirements. States that a family with a disabled parent shall not be treated as a two-parent family.

Allows the minimum 35-hour work requirement for a two-parent family to be shared between both parents. Declares that, if the family receives federally-funded child care assistance and an adult is not disabled or caring for a severely disabled child, then both parents must make progress in work activities for a total of at least 55 hours per week during the month, not fewer than 50 of which (currently, for an individual's spouse, 20) are attributed to specified work activities.

Deems the caretaker relative of a child under age six to meet work requirements if he or she is engaged in work for 20 hours per week. Allows 12 weeks of job search to count as work in a needy State.

Extends to married teens the rule that receipt of sufficient education is enough to meet work participation requirements.

(Sec. 106) Sets forth certain special income deeming rules for the determination of TANF eligibility (similar to previous rules) applicable to aliens (non-213A aliens) who entered the country under affidavits of support formerly used (before PRAWORA added section 213A to the Immigration and Nationality Act, requiring such affidavits to be contracts enforceable against the sponsor by the alien or by the Federal Government for recovery of any public assistance paid the alien). Makes such deeming rules discretionary, not mandatory, for any State which opts to provide TANF to sponsored noncitizens already in the United States or arriving before implementation of PRAWORA affidavit of support requirements. Requires a five-year postponement of these special deeming rules, however, for new immigrants who arrived in the United States after enactment of PRAWORA but before the new affidavit of support requirements take effect.

(Sec. 107) Changes from one month to 45 days the deadline for States to file quarterly reports before incurring a penalty. Conforms TANF penalties to those under SSA title IV part D (Child Support and Establishment of Paternity).

Excludes State child care assistance expenditures from the amount of qualified State expenditures computed to determine whether a State faces a penalty for failing to maintain 100 percent of historic effort.

Revises the penalty for State failure to expend additional State funds to replace grant reductions. Makes such a grant reduction discretionary with the Secretary, not mandatory on the State. Limits such penalty to two percent of the State family assistance grant.

(Sec. 108) Requires State quarterly reports to specify: (1) any disability benefits a child is receiving; (2) whether or not a family member under age 20 is also a parent of a child in the family; and (3) the number of families and individuals receiving TANF, and the total dollar value of TANF received by all families.

(Sec. 109) Reduces appropriations for tribal work activities programs. Applies corrective compliance plan requirements to Indian tribes with approved tribal assistance plans.

(Sec. 110) Revises requirements for the methodology for determining child poverty rates to require county-by-county estimates of children in poverty only to the extent available.

(Sec. 113) Amends SSA title XI to: (1) revise the limitation on total payments to each territory under TANF and other specified SSA programs to require the disregard of certain payments under TANF in determining such limitation; and (2) treat certain child care and social services expenditures by territories as SSA title IV part A expenditures for matching grant purposes.

(Sec. 114) Makes conforming amendments to SSA title IV parts D (Child Support and Establishment of Paternity) and E (Foster Care and Adoption Assistance).

(Sec. 117) Amends PRAWORA with regard to the denial of assistance and benefits for drug-related convictions. Revises the exemption from benefit denial for convictions on or before enactment of PRAWORA to specify convictions relating to conduct on or before such enactment date.

Changes the effective date of the mandate for certain research, evaluations, and national studies of State programs from July 1, 1997, to August 22, 1996 (the PRAWORA date of enactment).

Title II: Supplemental Security Income - Subtitle A: Conforming and Technical Amendments - Amends SSA title XVI (Supplemental Security Income) (SSI) and PRAWORA to make conforming and technical amendments relating to certain eligibility restrictions on prisoners and eligibility redeterminations and continuing disability reviews with respect to SSI benefits for disabled children.

(Sec. 203) Makes technical amendments to SSA title II (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) (OASDI) and the Social Security Independence and Program Improvements Act of 1994.

Subtitle B: Additional Amendments - Amends the Contract with America Advancement Act of 1996 with respect to the effective date: (1) of the denial of OASDI disability and SSI benefits to drug addicts and alcoholics; and (2) of other OASDI and SSI provisions concerning representative payees and treatment referrals of drug addicts and alcoholics.

(Sec. 222) Amends the Social Security Disability Amendments of 1980 to extend disability insurance program demonstration project authority.

(Sec. 223) Makes perfecting amendments related to withholding from social security benefits under SSA title II, and the allocation of costs of withholding between the OASDI and Medicare trust funds and the general fund in the Treasury.

(Sec. 224) Applies to the payment of OASDI benefits to prisoners the same requirements as enacted by PRAWORA with respect to SSI payments for agreements between the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration and State or local correctional institutions for monthly identifying information, and the exchange of such information among Federal or federally-assisted cash, food, or medical assistance programs.

Extends to all prisoners, regardless of offense or length of sentence, the current prohibition against the payment of social security benefits, by repealing its limitation to offenses punishable by imprisonment for more than one year.

Amends PRAWORA to require inclusion of prisoners receiving OASDI benefits in certain required studies and reports to the Congress.

(Sec. 225) Amends SSA title VII (Administration) to reinstate personnel provisions for the Social Security Advisory Board as they were before enactment of PRAWORA, although slightly modified.

Title III: Child Support - Amends SSA to modify child support requirements affecting: (1) individuals subject to fee for child support enforcement services; (2) distribution of State-collected support and State options for applicability of certain rules; (3) distribution of collections with respect to families receiving assistance and families under certain agreements; and (4) civil penalties relating to State Directory of New Hires.

(Sec. 304) Prohibits disclosure of information in the Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS) to any person if the State has notified the Secretary that it has reasonable evidence of domestic violence or child abuse and such disclosure could be harmful to the custodial parent or the child of such parent.

(Sec. (305) Provides for access to FPLS data for research purposes.

Revises requirements with respect to: (1) use of social security numbers for child support enforcement purposes in applications for State recreational licenses; (2) availability of funds earmarked for FPLS; (3) authority to collect child support from Federal employees; (4) direct Federal grants to Indian tribes for child support enforcement; (5) State retention of child support amounts collected on behalf of a child for whom a public agency is making foster care maintenance payments to the extent necessary to reimburse it for such payments; (6) State procedures for high-volume, automated administrative enforcement in interstate cases; (7) statutory procedures to ensure that persons with child support arrearages have a work or payment plan; and (8) direct payments of development costs for automated monitoring and data retrieval systems.

Title IV: Restricting Welfare And Public Benefits For Aliens - Subtitle A: Eligibility for Federal Benefits - Amends PRAWORA to make certain aliens (who earned such benefits) eligible for Medicare and Railroad Retirement Act benefits.

(Sec. 402) Makes technical corrections with respect to: (1) aliens under withheld deportation; (2) Cuban and Haitian entrants; and (3) notification of unlawfully present aliens.

(Sec. 403) Requires alien veterans to have fulfilled minimum active duty service requirements to be eligible for specified Federal and State public assistance programs. Extends assistance eligibility to the unremarried surviving spouse of such a veteran. Expands the definition of veteran to include certain Filipino veterans and those who died on active duty (thus making them and their families eligible for public assistance).

(Sec. 406) Includes contracts and licenses with citizens of the freely associated states within the exemption from consideration as Federal public benefits.

(Sec. 407) Expresses the sense of the Congress that permanent resident Hmong and other Highland Lao veterans who fought on behalf of the United States during the Vietnam conflict should be considered veterans for purposes of certain welfare benefits' continuation.

Subtitle B: General Provisions - Amends PRAWORA with respect to the treatment of certain battered aliens as "qualified aliens" to: (1) transfer determination authority from the Attorney General to the providing agency; and (2) include the alien child of a battered parent under such definition and under the special income attribution rule.

(Sec. 412) Directs the Attorney General to issue benefits eligibility guidelines within 90 days of enactment of this Act.

(Sec. 413) Amends provisions concerning qualifying social security quarters.

(Sec. 414) States that work related or veterans benefits are not to be restricted for noncitizens living outside the United States.

Subtitle C: Miscellaneous Clerical and Technical Amendments; Effective Date - Makes technical corrections to PRAWORA and SSA.

(Sec. 422) States that the amendments made by this title shall be effective as if included in the enactment of title IV of PRAWORA (August 22, 1996).

Title V: Child Protection - Amends SSA to make technical and conforming amendments relating to child protection.

Title VI: Child Care - Amends SSA and the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 to make technical and conforming amendments relating to child care.

(Sec. 603) Repeals: (1) the Child Development Associate Scholarship Assistance Act of 1985; and (2) the State Dependent Care Development Grants Act.

Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to repeal the eligibility of specified activities for Federal grants.

Amends the Native Hawaiian Education Act to repeal the authority to make direct grants to Native Hawaiian Family-Based Education Centers.

Title VII: ERISA Amendments Relating to Medical Child Support Orders - Amends the Employment Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), with respect to group health plan coverage of children under a medical child support order, to permit payment of plan benefits to a State or local official in lieu of the child.

(Sec. 702) Requires treatment as a medical child support court order of specified similar administrative orders.

(Sec. 703) Repeals the requirement that a medical child support order specify each health benefit plan to which it applies.