Require Midterm Review of Time-Limit Policies and the Adequacy of the 20 Percent Exemption

The House-passed bill recommends few changes in the law's time-limit provisions, an approach consistent with research findings to date of no evidence that the imposition of time limits have resulted in significant harm. But the final time-limit story has not yet been told, since relatively few welfare recipients have reached either the federal or a state time limit. In 16 states, time limits only begin to kick in this year; and in eight of those states, time limits will not expire until July 2002 or later. Indeed, to date the number of people nationally to have reached either the federal time limit or a shorter state time limit and had their case closed amounts to slightly more than 93,000. And in the limited instances where time limits have been implemented, it has been the more vulnerable people - large families, residents in public or subsidized housing, those without a high school diploma, and African-Americans - who have been most heavily affected. Moreover, we do not yet know how former recipients will fare over long periods without welfare. A recipient with preschool-aged children who reaches a lifetime limit at age 25 would have to survive without welfare for many years. More definitive data on the longer-term consequences of a loss of welfare eligibility will become available only over the next two or three years. Given the current uncertainty, it would seem prudent to build in a review mechanism that would provide Congress with an opportunity to revisit the 20 percent exemption provision before the end of the next reauthorization period. Back to summary of policy implications