Defend the Spend Delays TANF
Plus big news on the future of Child Welfare Wonk
Welcome, Wonks! Are you ready for reconciliation season, because it’s here.
Today we’ve got DOGE-induced delays to TANF fund disbursements, the latest on budget reconciliation, and exciting news on Child Welfare Wonk’s growth and future.
Let’s get after it, Wonks!
Wonkatizers
State Dept. Reorg and Child Protection: Tom Rawlings’ latest newsletter examines U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s State Department reorg plan.
Taking a child protection lens, he notes related training judicial training programming at USAID would move to an Office for Foreign Assistance and Humanitarian Aid.
A draft would scale back parts of the Fulbright Program, related to promoting rule of law, judicial independence, and stronger social work policy and practice.
Kennedy to Testify on HHS Cuts: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will testify in mid-May before the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.
This hearing is sure to cover recent cuts to HHS programs and staffing. We recently covered how they impact child welfare and will be watching for questions around:
How is ACF reorganizing, and what does that mean for child welfare?
What is the impact of 40% staff cuts at ACF since January on key programs?
How are these changes impacting states, the programs they run, and the families they serve?
Now, on to some exciting news about Child Welfare Wonk!
Child Welfare Wonk Enters 2.0 Era
Thanks to your interest in what Child Welfare Wonk offers, we have a chance to grow. That means even better actionable policy intel for you!
What’s Happening: Starting in May, Child Welfare Wonk is launching a Founding Strategic Partnership program to invest in and expand the value we offer you.
Partnership Overview: This invite-only partnership program of 8-10 organizations will sustainably support and scale the work of Child Welfare Wonk.
The newsletter will continue (for free!), and is only the beginning of what’s to come.
What it Means for You:
Deeper data-driven insight and analysis
Higher-quality strategic policy intelligence
New resources and tools to strengthen your work.
What Stays the Same:
Our newsletter remains free and independent, always.
Our analysis remains driven by strategic necessity, not sponsorship.
What it Means for Partners:
Partners invest in building our community’s infrastructure.
They receive access to early analyses and help shape our next innovation.
What Comes Next: We will begin sharing about partners in our next issue. We also have some exciting developments underway to add some serious talent to our team.
And with that, it’s back to our regularly scheduled programming!
Defend the Spend Delays TANF Funds
Last week we discussed the novel development that DOGE is requiring approval of ACF grants.
Now we know it’s impacting disbursement of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funding to states, with implications for child welfare funding.
Refresher: DOGE has added approval rules and new data fields to HHS’ Payments Management Services, which handles disbursement of grant funds.
DOGE is requiring line-item spending justifications, and planning to publish them.
Why it Matters: Last year this system disbursed nearly $1T in federal funds. This is the plumbing for grants to nonprofits and state, local, and tribal governments.
ACF Letter Confirmation: On April 22nd, ACF sent grant recipients a letter confirming the new process and encouraging them to plan for longer waits for funds.
What’s at Issue: TANF funding appears to be caught in the mix, despite the law’s statutory language requiring its disbursement.
TANF’s Child Welfare Role: TANF plays a major role in child welfare financing, supporting an array of activities, including:
Financial resources for kin caregivers
Foster care maintenance payments for children who are not eligible for Title IV-E.
Family support, family preservation, and reunification services;
Adoption services; and
Much more, including the authority to transfer up to 10% of TANF funds to SSBG, which itself can also fund child welfare activities.
As a reminder this chart shows the 15 states that have 20 percent or more of their FY2023 TANF expenditures going to child welfare7:
To add some national perspective, this map shows the percent of total FY2023 TANF expenditures that went to child welfare.
TANF is a major player in child welfare financing. This uncertainty is compounded by the possible cuts it also faces in budget reconciliation.
Ways and Means Rankers Question Legality of TANF Delays: On April 22nd, Democratic leadership for the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee sent a letter to HHS Secretary Kennedy arguing that applying “Defend the Spend” to TANF is illegal.
The letter notes that HHS began withholding TANF disbursements for the quarter that began March 1 as part of Defend the Spend, and points to the statutory language:
“Section 405 of the Social Security Act provides that the Secretary of HHS shall pay states the TANF funds they are entitled to on a quarterly basis. The timing is not discretionary. Apparently on instructions from DOGE, HHS is withholding funds for the current quarter, which began on March 1, 2025.”
The letter also notes that the recent FY25 government spending bill President Trump signed on March 15 includes language at odds with the withholding of funds:
“Section 417 of the Social Security Act expressly prohibits the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from requiring any other data beyond that which is provided in the state plan described in Section 402, which provides for a TANF State Plan to be approved by the Secretary, or otherwise specifically required by statute. When the Secretary has accepted the TANF State Plan as including all the statutorily-required data elements, states are legally entitled to their allocated TANF funds. Congress extended both Section 417 and Section 402 without changes in H.R. 1968, which was signed into law by President Trump on March 15, 2025.”
What Comes Next: Ways and Means Democratic leaders have requested a response to their questions by May 6.
Reconciliation Rollout
April is almost over, and in 2025 that means budget reconciliation is nigh.
Reconciliation Reminder: Our reconciliation overview and recent forecast of state-by-state effects of possible spending cuts in reconciliation remain relevant.
Timing Coming Clear: The House will kickoff crafting of reconciliation legislation, and while this is all still in pencil, the near-term timing is becoming clearer:
Week of April 28: Continued closed-door meetings on policy and strategy.
Week of May 5: House hearings begin, likely May 7 Energy & Commerce
Matters for Medicaid.
Week of May 12: Hearings continue, likely May 12-13 Ways and Means markup
Matters for TANF and Social Services Block Grant
Medicaid Dynamics Continue: As reconciliation gears up, deliberations over Medicaid continue to be the defining dynamic driving debate.
A group of 12 House Republicans already sent a letter to leadership expressing concerns about cuts to Medicaid impacting beneficiaries and hospitals.
Discussions among policymakers continue to suggest prioritizing “waste, fraud, and abuse” and reforming eligibility determination processes.
That would be challenging at the level of $880B over ten years.
What Comes Next: As hearings begin, House Republican leaders continue to aim for completion of reconciliation by Memorial Day, though that deadline looks increasingly aspirational.
We will continue covering this and breaking down the child welfare implications.
Foster Care Education Gap Narrows
A new systematic review is out that examines educational attainment among youth who have experienced foster care.
What it Found: Research suggesting high school diploma/equivalent completion rates of 69-85% for those in foster care, compared to 95% for all students.
Post-secondary completion ranged from 8-12%, compared to 49% nationally.
Why it Matters: Older and often-cited statistics have long said that less than half of youth in foster care graduate high school and fewer than 3% earn a college degree.
While this systematic review shows a significant gap remains, it also shows progress in closing it, which could inform future policy deliberations.
Wonk Out and Go Deeper: Read the Study
Thanks for reading, Wonks!