Saturday, April 28, 2012

Time to Comment on Section 4004: TANF Access Restrictions

In our last post ("Liquor and Lap Dances: Regulating Bad Behavior," April 28, 2012) we discussed the issues raised in the recent Electronic Funds Transfer Association webinar on restricting access to TANF in certain locations. These locations include liquor stores, casinos and adult-entertainment venues.

Section 4004 of the recently signed Middle Class Tax Relief and Jobs Creation Act of 2012 requires states to prohit the use of EBT cards to access TANF benefits in these locations.

The matter is now in the hands of the Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families. ACF, which administers TANF, is currently engaged in writing regulations to implement Section 4004.

In this short interview, Kurt Helwig, president and CEO of EFTA discusses the difficulty that ACF will face in regulating this complex issue, and the role that states and EBT providers can play by responding to DHHS' reccently released Request for Public Comment, the first step in the regulatory proccess.

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