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Bayh, Obama Urge End to Marriage Penalty in Budget Bill

Monday, January 30, 2006

By Congressional Desk

Senators seek to eliminate anti- marriage bias

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Evan Bayh (D-IN) and Barack Obama (D-IL) today called for the elimination of a "marriage penalty" in the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) portion of the Spending Reconciliation conference agreement. In a letter to the Senate and House leadership and the Chairmen of the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means Committees, Bayh and Obama urged that TANF legislation treat single-parent and two-parent families equitably and that the separate work participation standard for two-parent families be eliminated from the final bill.

"Our tax code should encourage parents to get married, not penalize them," said Senators Bayh and Obama. "So it's unfortunate that in a bill that includes new resources to promote healthy marriages and fatherhood, there are also provisions that discourage low-income parents from getting married. We strongly urge the reversal of the policy that discourages states from serving two-parent families."

As currently written, the Spending Reconciliation conference agreement creates strong financial incentives for states to stop providing TANF to two-parent families. The agreement requires states to enroll 90 percent of the two-parent families that receive TANF assistance in work programs, while only requiring that they enroll 50 percent of the combined pool of single-parent and two-parent families - the vast majority of which are single-parent families. States that do not meet the requirement are subject to financial penalties, despite the fact that researchers and state officials have long recognized that such a requirement would be virtually impossible to meet. As a result, many states will be faced with an unfortunate choice: stop serving two-parent families or face a financial penalty.

This skewed incentive creates an anti-marriage bias, and reverses a long-standing consensus that TANF legislation should promote marriage and strengthen two-parent families. Recent TANF legislation, including the bipartisan PRIDE Act in the Senate and H.R. 240 in the House, and Administration proposals have all recognized that there should not be separate work participation standards for single-parent and two-parent families.

"While Republicans and Democrats certainly have their disagreements about how best to promote economic stability and long-term self sufficiency for low-income families, we all agree on the benefits to children of growing up with two responsible parents," Senators Bayh and Obama wrote.