President requests funding for 2Gen initiatives in 2017 Budget

Feb 18, 2016

By MBPC Staff

Yesterday, we covered 2Gen as our Wonky Word Wednesday. Today, let’s see how President Obama has considered 2Gen initiatives in his 2017 budget. Reforming Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) – TANF is a federal program that provides a safety net for families living in severe poverty. For the most part, TANF provides families with cash assistance so they can meet their basic needs, like paying for rent or buying groceries. However, while TANF has many flaws, it is an example of how to look at services from a 2Gen angle. For example, TANF includes both work supports for parents and subsidized child care for children. But policymakers can do more to improve TANF, and we’re pleased to see the President’s budget includes some of those changes. Based on the proposed budget, the federal TANF program stands to benefit in two major ways. First, because TANF funding is not adjusted yearly to account for inflation, funding has lost up to 30% of its value since the mid 1990s. To make up for some of this lost value, President Obama’s budget proposes to invest an additional $8 billion dollars into the program over the next five years Second, the budget proposes to shift up to $100 million in TANF funds to better support core programs, including work supports and subsidized child care for parents and families, and mental health and educational activities for children. Reducing Child Poverty in Rural Areas – To combat poverty in rural communities throughout America, the budget also proposes an investment in 2Gen initiatives that will align early childhood education programs for children and workforce development programs for their parents, in an effort to put families on track to economic security. This includes $16 million to support early childhood education and parental involvement programs in schools funded by the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) and serving American Indian families. These are just a few of the investments that President Obama’s 2017 budget proposes and it is the first time a president’s budget has specifically requested funding for 2Gen initiatives. We hope that Congress seriously considers these requests and recognize that these programs strengthen families’ educational, economic, social, and health outcomes from one generation to the next.