Lee wrote

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> States Are Hoarding $5.2 Billion in
> Welfare Funds Even as the Need for
> Aid Grows
> Dec 29
>
> When Congress passed welfare reform
> in 1996, states were given more
> autonomy over how they could use
> federal funding for aid to the poor.
> They could demand welfare recipients
> find work before receiving cash
> assistance. They could also use their
> federal �block grants� to fund
> employment and parenting courses or
> to subsidize childcare.
>
> Twenty-five years later, however,
> states are using this freedom to do
> nothing at all with large sums of
> the money.
>
> According to recently released federal
> data, states are sitting on $5.2 billion
> in unspent funds from the federal
> Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
> program, or TANF. Nearly $700 million
> was added to the total during the 2019
> and 2020 fiscal years, with Hawaii,
> Tennessee and Maine hoarding the most
> cash per person living at or below the
> federal poverty line.
>
> States have held on to more of this
> welfare money amid rising poverty.
> According to the U.S. Census Bureau,
> 16.1% of children under age 18 lived in
> poverty in 2020, up from 14.4% the year
> before. The poverty rate also ticked up
> for people aged 18 to 64, from 9.4% to
> 10.4%. As unused TANF dollars have
> accumulated, applications to the cash
> assistance program have waned, though
> it�s not for a lack of need, say experts
> and people who have applied to the
> program.
>
> https://www.propublica.org/article/states-are-hoarding-52-billion-in-wel
> fare-funds-even-as-the-need-for-aid-grows
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