LINCOLN- Last week, Sen. Clements and other members of the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee were urged to make changes in state policies concerning the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, federal funds that finance ADC, among other things. “This is an issue that has languished in Nebraska too long,” Conrad told committee members.

The state gets about $56.6 million a year from the feds for TANF, but until last year, has not come close to spending its annual allocation, which has resulted in nearly $126 million sitting unallocated in a reserve or “rainy day” fund. Sen. Danielle Conrad, who called for an interim study on the excess TANF funds, said that Nebraska is now using only about 30% of its available funds as direct aid for needy families and that those funds would be better used as they were intended, to help families get out of poverty.

She urged the committee to support efforts to get more of the TANF money directly in the hands of needy families, as has been done in other states. Conrad’s LB 310 would increase the maximum ADC payment from 55% of a family’s standard of need to 85%. State Auditor Mike Foley testified Friday that Nebraska is an outlier in the large size of its TANF rainy day fund.

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