Answers to your welfare worries.

• Author: Tubbesing, Carl
• Position: Federal welfare laws

THE NEW FEDERAL WELFARE LAW GIVES STATES WIDE FLEXIBILITY TO CREATE SOLUTIONS FOR GETTING PEOPLE INTO JOBS. IT ALSO SETS PARAMETERS, PRESCRIBES STANDARDS AND PENALIZES STATES IF THEY DON'T COMPLY. HERE ARE THE BASICS OF THIS AMBITIOUS LEGISLATION.

Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton campaigned for president throughout 1992 by promising "to end welfare as we know it." In 1994, the Republican campaign to take over Congress - symbolized by the Contract with America - pledged to reduce the size of the federal government, balance the budget and shift responsibilities for many social programs to state and local governments.

Near the end of last summer, the Republican-con-trolled Congress and the Democratic president agreed on a massive revamping of the nation's welfare system. With its emphasis on moving people off welfare and into jobs, the new law goes a long way toward ending welfare as we know it - or as we used to know it. And, by substituting a block grant for the AFDC entitlement program, the law indeed devolves responsibilities for welfare to state officials.

With the new statute - formally, "The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996" - the federal government does not completely relinquish authority over welfare. The law establishes broad parameters in some areas; and it is quite prescriptive about even the smallest details in others. Overall, though, the act consummates a trade. State legislators and governors get great latitude to design welfare programs, while the federal government gets $54 billion in deficit reduction.

The law forces state officials to think differently about welfare. Gone now is the "father knows best" federal waiver process. Gone is the unlimited federal entitlement money that used to come with Aid to Families with Dependent Children. Absent, too, is the requirement for state matching funds. There are far fewer areas in which the federal government will issue regulations. The policy options for state legislators may not be limitless. (There are, after all, two "p" words - parameters and prescriptions.) Still, the opportunities for experimentation and innovation are far greater than they were when President Clinton first promised to end welfare as we know it, and Congressman Newt Gingrich contracted with voters to return responsibilities to the states.

HUNDREDS OF QUESTIONS

The new law, which legislatures will begin to implement in earnest when they convene for their 1997 sessions, naturally raises dozens, if not hundreds of questions. Here are 18 of the most important questions being asked about the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act. The answers are not detailed but form a primer on the law that should provide a general understanding.

Q. How comprehensive is the new law?

A. The new act has nine titles and is 502 pages long. It integrates several programs and activities - such as cash assistance, child support enforcement, food stamps and supplemental security income - that used to be treated separately. It pulls in some of these programs - in particular, immigration, food stamps and supplemental security income - because that helps cut $54 billion from the deficit over six years.

Q. What is the biggest difference between the new law and the old system?

A. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act substitutes a block grant for an open-ended entitlement program. Financial assistance to welfare recipients used to be provided through Aid to Families with Dependent Children, a federal-state program whose funding fluctuated with the economy and the number of people who qualified for it. The new block grant - Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) - removes many of the strings that were attached to AFDC, but limits the amount of money each state will receive each year. The law also creates a block grant for child care that consolidates four of the old programs that provided help for welfare parents.

TANF AND CHILD CARE BLOCK GRANTS, FY 1997 ($ MILLIONS) CHILD CARE CHILD CARE TANF MATCHING DISCRETIONARY AND STATES FUNDS FUNDS MANDATORY FUNDS Alabama $93 $11 $37 Alaska 64 2 5 Arizona 222 13 38 Arkansas 57 7 17 California 3,734 96 213 Colorado 136 10 21 Connecticut 267 9 26 Delaware 32 2 7 District of Columbia 93 1 7 Florida 561 36 93 Georgia 331 20 69 Hawaii 99 3 9 Idaho 32 3 8 Illinois 585 33 97 Indiana 207 15 44 Iowa 130 7 18 Kansas 102 7 19 Kentucky 181 10 35 Louisiana 164 13 41 Maine 78 3 7 Maryland 229 14 37 Massachusetts 459 15 59 Michigan 775 26 61 Minnesota 266 13 37 Mississippi 87 8 24 Missouri 215 14 43 Montana 46 2 6 Nebraska 58 5 17 Nevada 44 4 7 New Hampshire 39 3 8 New Jersey 404 21 50 New Mexico 126 5 18 New York 2,360 49 162 North Carolina 302 19 98 North Dakota 26 2 5 Ohio 728 30 106 Oklahoma 148 9 40 Oregon 168 8 29 Pennsylvania 719 30 88 Rhode Island 95 3 9 South Carolina 100 10 28 South Dakota 22 2 5 Tennessee 190 14 59 Texas 486 57 153 Utah 75 7 22 Vermont 47 2 6 Virginia 158 17 41 Washington 400 15 58 West Virginia 110 4 17 Wisconsin 318 14 39 Wyoming 22 1 4 Note: Estimated figures rounded off to millions. Money for child care programs is available in three funding streams. The third column combines the mandatory and discretionary funds that do not require a state match. Discretionary funds are available to states on Sept. 30, while mandatory and federal matching funds have been available since last October. Sources: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Q. Who controls the new block grant funds?

A. State legislators and staff fought hard to make sure that legislatures would have a role in deciding how the block grant money will be spent. The result was inclusion of the Brown Amendment, which stipulates that the funds in the two block grants must be appropriated by the state legislature.

Q. When do we start getting the block grant money?

A. The child care block grant money started going to states in October; although some of these funds will not be available until Sept. 30, 1997.

The TANF money starts as soon as the governor submits a complete state plan. States whose AFDC caseloads have declined recently - because of improved economies and their own welfare reform efforts - will have the advantage in the short term by getting their plans in early. However, submitting the plan and receiving the money also starts several "clocks," including a five-year time limit for families receiving TANF money, federal work participation requirements and fiscal penalties on states for not complying.

Q. Do states have to match the block grant money?

A. There is no state match of the TANF block grant. However, states must continue to spend at least 80 percent of what they used to spend. (This goes down to 75 percent for states that meet work participation targets.) There are similar maintenance of effort provisions for the child care block grant.

Q. What is a state plan?

A. The law requires the state to submit a plan (really a checklist) every two years. States...